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Prophecies Fulfilled in OUR Generation (last 100 years)
ISRAELI–PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

WORLD POLITICS FOCUSED ON JERUSALEM

At the heart of Israel's role in world politics is the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.  This has captured the world’s attention and just about everyone has chosen a side.  Through the guise of social justice – and thanks to Bible illiteracy – Satan has convinced the masses that Israel has no right to the land.  But God definitively states that Israel belongs to Himself & His people, the Jews.  So where do the Arabs fit into end time Bible prophecy?  Just as God made a covenant with the Jews through Abraham’s son Isaac and his son Jacob, God also made a promise to the Arab people.

 

The Origin of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

What is Palestine?

Who are the ‘Palestinians’?

The Middle East Crisis in Biblical Perspective

The Land of Israel - To whom does it belong?

Exposing the Lie of Israel Apartheid

Divide Israel and Jerusalem?

 

Jerusalem in History and Prophecy

Who Does Jerusalem Belong To?

Crisis in the Holy Land Discussion

A New US Assistant Secretary of State with Ties to Hamas

Will There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

What is Palestine
Who are Palestinians

The Origin of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Genesis 16:6-12 – Hagar and Ishmael

Ge 16:6 So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. 7 Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”  She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” 10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”

11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her:

“Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man,

And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

Genesis 17:17-20 – The Sign of the Covenant

Ge 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” 19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

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And God has fulfilled these promises to the Arabs. God promised to increase Ishmael’s descendants exceedingly and make them into a great nation.

  • Today there are more than 427 million Arabs inhabiting 22 Arab nations in the Middle East and North Africa

  • The Arab’s control 5.3 million square miles of oil rich land.

  • God compared the personality of the Arabs to that of a wild donkey – living in hostility towards everyone. The Arabs are indeed characterized by an inability to get along with anyone, even including themselves. If Israel were to disappear tomorrow, there would still be wars in the Middle East between each other. The Arabs cannot even get along with each other, much less the rest of the world.

 

By comparison, there is only one Jewish state with a population of 9 million who are squeezed into a living area of only 8,500 square miles. That is a population ratio of 47 to 1, and a land ratio of 623 to 1! You would think with those such overwhelming numbers the Arabs would be satisfied with the land they have! But no, they want all of Israel’s territory as well. In truth, they yearn to destroy their half-brother Israel.

 

What is Palestine?

 

Israel began to be known as Palestine after the Second Jewish Revolt (AD 132–135) – a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judaea. The revolt was preceded by years of clashes between Jews and Romans in the area. Finally, in AD 132, the misrule of Tinnius Rufus, the Roman governor of Judaea, combined with the Emperor Hadrian’s intention to found a Roman colony on the site of Jerusalem and his restrictions on Jewish religious freedom and observances (which included a ban on the practice of male circumcision), roused the last remnants of the Jews to revolt. A bitter struggle ensued. Bar Kokhba became the leader of this Second Jewish Revolt. Although at first successful, his forces proved no match against the methodical and ruthless tactics of the Roman general Julius Severus. The battle proved to be costly to both sides (although the Judeans suffered worse casualties with over 500,000 combatants killed, not counting many others). With the fall of Jerusalem and then Bethar (a fortress on the seacoast south of Caesarea where Bar Kokhba was slain), the rebellion was crushed in 135.

 

The Emperor Hadrian was so enraged by Jewish resistance that he re-named the province Syria Palaestina (after the two traditional enemies of the Jews, the Syrians and the Philistines) in an attempt to remove any trace of Jewish sovereignty.  He banished all Jews from the region and built his city Aelia Capitolinia on the ruins of Jerusalem. He replaced the shrines of the Jewish Temple and the Sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem with temples to pagan deities. This was the last of the Jewish-Roman Wars and, afterwards, Rome held the region without further serious incident.

 

Philistine has no connection to modern day Palestine. Philistine covered a different land area. And the original Philistines were not Middle Eastern at all, they were European peoples from the Adriatic sea next to Greece (Ageans) – a people group who died out 3,000 years ago. So the original “Palestinians” had nothing to do, whatsoever, with Arabs.

Who are the ‘Palestinians’?

 

For 2,000 years the Jews were dispersed from the land which God gave them, and during that long period of time there was never an Arab state in the area that the world called Palestine. The Arabs who lived in the land considered themselves Syrians. They had no consciousness as Palestinians, and no effort was ever made to create a Palestinian state.  

Most of the Arabs that were there were absentee landlords because the area was a wasteland (see section on Desolation). When the Jews began returning in this century, the Arabs gleefully sold them the land at inflated prices because it was considered worthless.

 

It was World War I that changed the Arab viewpoint. When the Ottoman Turks lost control of Israel's ancient homeland after WWI, the British government was given oversight of Palestine. On November 2nd, 1917, the Balfour Declaration called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Suddenly, the Arabs were confronted with the prospect of a Jewish state, and they began to dig in their heels, claiming the land as their own.  The British gave in to Arab pressure, and in 1922 they gave two-thirds of Palestine to the Arabs, creating the state of Jordan. This was land that they had promised to the Jews. But this action did not satisfy the Arab appetite. They wanted all the land.  But after the World War II holocaust, the world softened toward the suffering Jewish people, and on November 29th, 1947 the United Nations voted to create a state for them. Then on May 14th, 1948 the modern nation of Israel was officially born.

Having barely survived the holocaust, and having experienced persecution everywhere they went, the Jewish people declared themselves a nation in a single day. Do you know why the Arabs in the new Israeli state left? It wasn’t that Israel ejected them. They left at the behest of the ARAB nations – Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt. A coalition force from those five nations invaded Israel the moment Israel was formed, with the intent of destroying the Jewish State from inception and giving the entire land to Arabs. The Arabs who left assumed the coalition would easily kill the Jews so they could return and take over their homes and businesses and property and wealth – except Israel won. So the Arabs, who sided with the losers, have no right to demand they get to go back in and take anything from the Israelis.

 

The Arabs tried again in 1967 and lost even worse. Israel won a large increase in territory, including the Sinai, the West Bank, Golan Heights and Jerusalem. The Israelis retained some of this territory because it was used by Arabs to stage and launch both terrorist attacks and outright military invasions. However, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt, and gave Gaza to the PLO, which has continued an endless pattern of terrorism and intolerance against Israel. Again, the Palestinians had no claim to anything because they were on the losing side of a war and the Arabs were the aggressors, not the victims.

 

In all history, there has never been any Palestinian identity. There has never been an Arab kingdom or nation of Palestine, nor an actual ethnic group known as “Palestinians”. The Arabs living in Gaza are indigenous to Egypt.  Those living in the West Bank are indigenous to Jordan. There is no indigenous Arab population to Israel.  There has never been a Palestinian culture. There was never any Palestinian language. It just simply doesn’t exist! The term was invented in 1968 by Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, to give a name to the motley collection of Syrians, Egyptians, Yemenis and Jordanians who he was leading in an effort to destroy the Jewish State of Israel. The idea of a Palestinian state, a people who were illegally displaced by the Jews, is pure propaganda developed by the Arabs after the Six Day War in 1967.

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There was no Palestine organization until 1964 and no Palestine cause until 1970.  The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, began the movement of radical Islam terrorism that exists to this day. The Israelis are not colonizers – there is no ‘occupied’ Palestinian land.  When Palestinians refer to the ‘illegal occupation’, they are referring to the entire state of Israel. Palestinians, led by Hamas, say that their firing of rockets at Israel will end when Israel ends the ‘occupation’.  What this means is that the Palestinians will stop waging war as soon as Israel ceases to exist.  According to them, peace is defined as every Jew vacating the land and allowing Arabs to control 100% of it.

 

There is a propaganda war going on now with regard to the term “Palestine.” At one time it might have been argued that Palestine was an innocuous designation of the Middle Eastern area, that is generally thought of as the Holy Land. During the last few decades, however, the term Palestine has been adopted by Arabs living in Israel in the area west of the Jordan River. It is specifically employed to avoid the use of the name Israel, and must be considered an anti-Israel term. Palestine is the term now used by those who want to deny the legitimate existence of Israel as a genuine nation among the family of nations.  

It is very important to keep in mind that the Palestinians already have a state. If there is any land that belongs to the Palestinians, it is Jordan, which was given to them in 1922. Some 75% of all the people who live in Jordan consider themselves Palestinians. So, when the Palestinians cry out to the world that they need a state, the truth is, they already legally have a state.

Ezekiel 35:2-13 – Judgment on Mount Seir

Ez 35:2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it…5 “Because you have had an ancient hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, when their iniquity came to an end, … 10 “Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess them,’ although the Lord was there, 11 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord God, “I will do according to your anger and according to the envy which you showed in your hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. 12 Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to consume.’ 13 Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me and multiplied your words against Me; I have heard them.”

 

Ezekiel 36:1-8 – Blessing on Israel

Ez 36:1 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord! 2 Thus says the Lord God: “Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’ ” ’ 3 therefore prophesy, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people”— 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes, and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around— 5 therefore thus says the Lord God: “Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.” ’ 6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, and the valleys, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and My fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations.” 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “I have raised My hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame. 8 But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come. 

Joel 3:1-2 – God Judges the Nations

Joel 3:1  “For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land.

The Origin of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The Middle East Crisis in Biblical Perspective

What are the spiritual roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Can the conflict be solved politically? By Dr. David R. Reagan
https://christinprophecy.org/articles/the-middle-east-crisis-in-biblical-perspective/

 

“Why don’t those stubborn Jews just give the Arabs the West Bank so that there can be peace in the Middle East?”

 

The question was directed to me by a grumpy man I was sitting next to on an airplane.

Suspecting that the man did not have the foggiest idea what he was talking about, I responded with a question: “Where is the West Bank?”

“You know,” he said.

“Yes, I know, but do you?”

“Well, of course I know!” he snapped.

“Okay then, where is it?” I asked again, insisting that he answer.

“Well… well…” he sputtered, “the West Bank is the west bank of the Nile!”

 

It was all I could do to refrain from laughing out loud. Yet, it really wasn’t a laughing matter. Here was a man demanding the Israelis surrender the West Bank when he had no idea where the West Bank was even located. He was embarrassed when I explained that the west bank of the Nile belongs to Egypt, not Israel. And he was astounded when I pointed out that if Israel were to surrender the real West Bank, the nation would be left in an indefensible position, being only 9 miles wide at its narrowest point.

 

My conversation with this man was a typical one concerning the complexities of Middle East politics. Most people know little, if anything, about the area except the anti-Israel propaganda they have heard through biased media sources. Yet, they are willing to sit in their comfortable homes halfway around the world and pontificate about how the Israelis need to stop being so stubborn and start surrendering land for peace.

 

Much has been written about the Middle East crisis from a political perspective, but it will never be understood apart from its spiritual roots, for it is, from start to finish, a spiritual conflict — which is why it will never be settled politically.

 

The Abrahamic Covenant

The controlling factor spiritually is a promise which God made to Abraham almost 4,000 years ago. That promise is contained in Genesis 12:1-3:

1 Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house To the land which I will show you;

2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;

3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. 
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Theologians refer to this passage as the Abrahamic Covenant. Note that it contains a series of unconditional promises. Never once does God say, “If you will do so-and-so…” or “If you will be faithful…” The promises are absolute and unconditional.

And what glorious promises they are! God promises Abraham a land, a nation, a great name, protection, and — most important of all — that through him all nations will be blessed. The latter promise referred, of course, to the fact that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, would come through Abraham’s lineage.

The Lord appeared to Abraham six additional times to reaffirm this covenant (Genesis 12:713:14-1615:1-615: 8-2117:1-8; and 22:15-18). In these subsequent appearances, God declared that the covenant was an “everlasting” one (Genesis 17:7-8), and He spelled out the boundaries of the land in detail as encompassing most of what is referred to today as the Middle East (Genesis 15:18-21). The covenant was reaffirmed to Abraham’s son, Isaac (Genesis 26:1-5), and to Isaac’s son, Jacob (Genesis 28:3-4,13-14 and 35:10-12).

 

A thousand years later, King David affirmed the continuing validity of the Abrahamic Covenant in Psalm 105:

8 He [God] has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,

9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac.

10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant,

11 Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance.”

The Abrahamic Covenant establishes title to the land in the Middle East. That title belongs to the Jewish people forever — with no ands, ifs, or buts.

Their use and enjoyment of the land is, however, conditional upon their obedience to God. This fact was established by a second covenant given through Moses right before the Children of Israel entered the land of Canaan. This covenant, often referred to as the Land Covenant, is recorded in Deuteronomy 28-30.

 

In the Land Covenant, God made it clear that the Jews’ enjoyment of the land would depend upon their faithfulness to Him. If they were faithful, they would be richly blessed (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). But if they were unfaithful, they would be cursed in many different ways (Deuteronomy 28:15-46).

 

The greatest curse which God promised to put upon them was their displacement from the land. The Babylonian captivity, which lasted 70 years, is clearly prophesied in Deuteronomy 28:47-57. And their worldwide dispersion, which began in 70 AD, is graphically described in Deuteronomy 28:58-67

The Critical Point

Now, the important point to keep in mind is that God’s gift of the land was unconditional. The Jews were given an irrevokable, eternal title. But the use and enjoyment of the land was conditional upon their obedience.

Let me illustrate the point to you with a modern day example. Let’s say you have a teenage son who has just turned 16 and has acquired his driver’s license. You decide to bless him by buying him a new car and putting the title in his name. The car belongs to him, but you make it clear to him that his use of the car will depend upon his obedience to the law. If he gets a speeding ticket, the car will be locked up in the garage for a week. It will still belong to him, but he will not be able to use it.

The Ejection of the Jews

The Children of Israel entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor. They proceeded to occupy the land for the next 750 years (400 under the Judges and 350 under the Kings). But in violation of God’s law, they intermarried with the Canaanites, and ended up worshiping their false gods.

God sent prophets like Elijah and Elisha to call them out of idolatry, but they persisted. Finally, God raised up foreign armies as His sword of discipline and allowed them to conquer the Jews and take them into captivity. The Assyrians dispersed the ten Jewish tribes living in the northern kingdom of Israel. When the remaining two tribes in the southern kingdom of Judah failed to get the message, God allowed the Babylonians to capture and exile them.

Seventy years later, in His grace and mercy, God allowed the Jews of Judah to return to their land and rebuild both Jerusalem and their sacred temple. But the Jewish people persisted in rebellion for the next 400 years, and when they rejected their Messiah, God allowed the Romans to conquer and disperse them worldwide, in fulfillment of prophecy.

But again, the crucial point to keep in mind is that the Jews did not lose their title to the land. They lost only their use and enjoyment of it, as a punishment for their disobedience. To this day, the Jews have remained under discipline. They may be back in a portion of their land, but their enjoyment of it is being deterred by constant Arab attacks.

The Promise of Regathering

The modern day return of the Jews to their land is one of the greatest miracles of history. It is also a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

 

In the Land Covenant itself, God promised that if the Jews were ever dispersed from their land due to disobedience, they would one day be regathered (Deuteronomy 30:1-9). This promise of restoration to the land is the most prolific prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures, mentioned more times than any other prophecy.

When you study these regathering prophecies carefully, you will find that they fall into three categories. A few relate to the return from Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 25:10-12 and 29:1-10). Most, however, are prophecies concerning two great end time regatherings from all over the world — one in unbelief before the Lord returns (Isaiah 11:10-12 and Ezekiel 36:22-28) and the other in belief after the Lord returns (Deuteronomy 30:1-10 and Ezekiel 37:19-28).

The Regathering in Unbelief

Regarding the end time regathering in unbelief, God set it in motion in the late 19th Century when He began to raise up prophetic voices among the Jews in Europe, calling them to return to their homeland. God knew the Holocaust was coming, so He called the Jewish people to return to their roots.

The key individual He used to spread this warning message was a Viennese journalist named Theodore Herzl. Like most European Jews, Herzl believed the Jews had been assimilated into European culture and would never again suffer from outbreaks of Anti-Semitism. But in 1894 he went to Paris to cover the trial of a French Army officer named Alfred Dreyfus. This man had been accused of treason, primarily because he was a Jew. When Herzl arrived at the courthouse, he was astonished to see tens of thousands of sophisticated Parisians standing in the streets shouting, “Death to the Jews!”

His eyes were opened to the fact that Jews had not been assimilated and never would be. He responded by writing a pamphlet called “The Jewish State.” In it, he called for Jews worldwide to return to their homeland, which at that time was called Palestine. In 1897 he convened the first international Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. At that conference, he proclaimed his belief that a Jewish state would come into existence within 50 years.

Herzl’s vision motivated waves of immigrants to return to Palestine. These waves were dubbed “aliyas” — after the Hebrew word, aliya, which means “to go up.” This word was used because the immigrants were viewed as “going up to Jerusalem.”

 

By 1900 there were 40,000 Jews in Palestine. During the years immediately preceding World War II, and during the war itself, many barriers were placed in the way of Jewish immigration, but even so, by the end of the war, the Jewish population had swelled to over 700,000. Today there are over 6 million Jews in Israel who have come — as prophesied — from the four corners of the world (Isaiah 11:12).

 

The two world wars were the key events that led to the return of the Jews to their homeland, proving once again that God can bring good out of any calamity. World War I prepared the land for the people; World War II prepared the people for the land.

 

The Impact of World War I

During World War I the Turks sided with the Germans. Their realm, called the Ottoman Empire, included most of the lands of the Middle East, including Palestine. When the Germans lost the war, the Turks did also, and their empire was divided up among the Allied victors. In a secret pact signed in 1916 (called the Sykes-Picot Agreement), the British and French agreed to divide the Middle East between themselves when the war ended. Britain received Palestine while the French were given Syria.

In November 1917 the British announced that they intended to create a homeland for the Jews within the territory of Palestine that had been allotted to them. At that time Palestine consisted of all of modern day Israel and Jordan — an area of 45,000 square miles.

 

Jews worldwide were elated over the Balfour Declaration. But the ink was hardly dry before the British government changed its mind. To placate Arab animosity, they decided in 1922 to give two-thirds of Palestine to the Arabs, creating a Palestinian state called Transjordan.

 

Jewish leaders were terribly disappointed by this decision, and many felt betrayed by the British. But they still looked forward to establishing a Jewish state within the part of Palestine that was left — a sliver of land only 10,000 square miles in size, smaller than Lake Michigan or the state of New Jersey.

The Impact of World War II

Even after God had miraculously produced a homeland for the Jews out of the horrors of World War I, the Jewish people did not return in great numbers. Most felt comfortable in Europe and simply could not believe the rising chorus of prophetic voices who warned of an approaching time of widespread persecution.

World War II produced the Holocaust which, in turn, provided the motivation for the Jews to return home. They came out of the war saying, “Never again! Never again! Never again will we live under a Hitler. We are going to have our own land, our own government, our own state.” This feeling produced a flood of refugees.

In November of 1947 (50 years after Herzl’s proclamation), Jews worldwide were elated when the United Nations voted to allow the establishment of a Jewish state. But they were severely disappointed when the United Nations decided at the same time to divide the remaining portion of Palestine once again. Half was apportioned to the Jews for the creation of a Jewish state. The other half was assigned to the Arabs for the establishment of a second Palestinian state.

Despite their disappointment, the Jews accepted the UN resolution and proceeded to declare the existence of their new state on May 14, 1948. The Arabs rejected the UN vote and declared war on Israel.

The plan provided for the establishment of two states, one for the Jews, the other for the Arabs. The Jewish state was to consist of the Galilee, the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Negev Desert. The Arab state was made up mainly of the heartland of ancient Israel (Samaria and Judea). The Arab state also included the Gaza Strip and a portion of the Galilee.

The Choice of War

Please note carefully that the Arabs could have peacefully and legally established a second Palestinian state in 1948. They chose war instead, because they were unwilling to tolerate a Jewish state in the Middle East — even a minuscule one of only 5,000 square miles. This action on the part of the Arabs — and many like it since that time — is what prompted one of Israel’s most eloquent spokesmen, Abba Eban, to say, “The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Since 1948 there has been war after war in the Middle East as the Arabs have tried repeatedly to destroy Israel — the Suez War of 1956, the Six Day War of 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Lebanese War of 1982, the Gulf War of 1991, and the current Arab Uprising War which started in September of 2001.

For those who support the return of the Jews to their homeland, it is comforting to know that all efforts to destroy the Jewish state are doomed to failure. The reason this can be asserted with certainty is because of a promise contained in the book of Amos. In this passage, God says that when He re-establishes the Jews in their homeland in the end times, “they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them” (Amos 9:15).

The Arab Position

Let’s switch our attention for a moment to the Arabs. Just as God made a covenant with Abraham’s heirs through Isaac, He also made promises to Abraham’s descendants through Ishmael, the father of the Arab nations (Genesis 16:10-12 and 17:20). Here is a list of the remarkable promises God made to the Arab peoples:

  1. The descendants of Ishmael will be multiplied “exceedingly” (Genesis 16:10 and 17:20).

  2. They will become a great nation (Genesis 17:20).

  3. They will be given all the land east of Canaan (Genesis 16:12).

  4. They will be given a personality like a “wild donkey,” and because of this, “their hand will be against everyone” (Genesis 16:12).

 

God has faithfully fulfilled all these promises:

  • There are 200 million Arabs today.

  • They constitute a great nation composed of 21 states.

  • They occupy 5.3 million square miles of oil rich land.

  • They are characterized by an inability to get along with anyone, including themselves.

 

In contrast, there is only one Jewish state with a population of 6 million squeezed into an area of only 8,000 square miles. That’s a population ratio of 33 to 1 and a land ratio of 662 to 1! And yet, the Arabs greedily demand the creation of another Arab state at the expense of the one Jewish state.

 

The Palestinian Myth

Regarding the Palestinians, during the nearly 1,900 years that the Jews were dispossessed of their land:

  • There was never a Palestinian state.

  • Jerusalem was never the capital of any Arab state.

  • The Arabs who lived in the area considered themselves to be Syrians.

  • There was no Palestinian identity, culture, or language.

 

The concept of a Palestinian claim on the land is a propaganda gimmick developed after the Six Day War in 1967 when Jordan lost the West Bank to Israel.

The Arab Claim on Jerusalem

The same is true of the Arab claim on Jerusalem. The Arabs contend that Jerusalem is the third most holy place behind Mecca and Medina. But again, all this emphasis on the significance of Jerusalem has developed in recent years.

There is no mention of Jerusalem in the Koran, whereas it is mentioned 667 times by name in the Hebrew Scriptures. Although the Arabs claim that Mohammed came to Jerusalem and from there ascended into heaven, there is no historical evidence whatsoever that Mohammed ever even came close to Jerusalem. The real geographical focus of Islam is the city of Mecca. Muslims pray toward this city, and it is to this city that they are required to make a pilgrimage once in their lifetime.

The real claim of the Arabs is based upon a portion of the Koran that states that once a land has been conquered for Allah, it must remain an Islamic land. The Arabs conquered the land and city in the Middle Ages when they drove the Crusaders out. They now feel compelled by the Koran to reconquer it.

There are two other motivations for the Arab desire to retake both Israel and Jerusalem. The first is rooted in the fact that the re-establishment of the state of Israel is viewed by Muslim clerics as a judgment of God upon the Arab peoples for their lack of faithfulness to Islam. They must redeem themselves from this judgment by returning to the fundamentals of Islam and then, having been spiritually revived, Allah will empower them to regain both the land and the city.

The second factor is that the Arabs believe that their control of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount will certify their superiority over both Judaism and Christianity. The Temple Mount was the focal point of the Jewish faith for centuries because it was where the Temple was located. And it is believed that the Temple Mount is where the first Gospel sermon was preached by Peter on Pentecost, and thus was the site of the birthplace of the Church.

The Arab Aim

The goal of the Arabs is not the establishment of another state within Palestine. Rather, the goal is the incorporation of all the remainder of Palestine into a second Arab state. In other words, the goal is the annihilation of Israel. They have made this intention very clear in several ways:

1) The Phased Plan of 1974 — This plan, issued while the PLO was headquarted in Libya, is Arafat’s “Mein Kampf.” It was issued after Arafat realized he would never be able to destroy Israel militarily. So, he proposed as an alternative, that Israel be taken slowly, piece by piece, by using diplomatic pressure from the Vatican, Western Europe, the United Nations and the United States. Territory would be traded for a false promise of peace. And when enough territory had been gained, Israel would be attacked from within and destroyed. In other words, it was a Trojan horse strategy. Feisal Husseini, who served as Arafat’s foreign minister until his death in 2001, admitted this strategy in the last newspaper interview that he gave. He said, “The Oslo Accords were a Trojan horse. The strategic goal is the liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea…”

2) Arafat’s Speeches — In May of 1994, just eight months after signing the Oslo Accords at the White House, Arafat gave a speech in Johannesburg, South Africa in which he called for a “holy jihad” to liberate Jerusalem. He also mocked the Oslo agreement as nothing but a strategic ploy to gain time. He likened it to Mohammed’s treaty with the tribe of Koraish. That was a treaty in which Mohammed agreed to peace with the tribe of Koraish if they would allow him to pray in Mecca. Within two years, when Mohammed felt he had grown strong enough militarily, he abrogated the agreement, slaughtered the tribe of Koraish, and conquered Mecca for Allah. The Johannesburg speech was only one of many similar ones that Arafat has given all over the Arab world to assure the Arab masses that the Oslo Accords are meaningless.

3) Continued Terrorism — Even though the land-for-peace process initiated by the Oslo Accords has resulted in 97% of Palestinians being placed under the control of the Palestinian Authority, the violence against Israel continues to escalate. In the year following the signing of the Oslo Accords (September 1993 to September 1994), there were over twice as many Israeli terror fatalities than during the preceding year. Overall, Israel suffered 73% more terror fatalities in the two years after the 1993 deal than in the two years before it. And more Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists in the first five years after Olso than in the 15 preceding years! From the outbreak of the current Arab uprising in September 2000 until July 1, 2002, there have been 13,494 terrorist attacks against Israelis, resulting in 4,213 casualties, including 561 killed.

4) Palestinian Maps — The website of the Palestinian State Information Service contains a map of the projected state of Palestine that includes all of modern day Israel. This same map hangs on the wall of Arafat’s office and is used on shoulder patches of Palestinian uniforms.

5) Rejection of the Barak Offer — In July of 2000 the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, decided to put Arafat to the test by offering him everything he had been publicly demanding. In short, he called Arafat’s bluff. To summarize the offer, he proposed giving the Palestinian Authority 96% of the West Bank and Gaza, 4% of Israel adjacent to Gaza, three-fourths of the Old City of Jerusalem and sovereignty over the Temple Mount, five neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and the right of return for 50,000 Palestinians. Arafat got up, walked out of the room, and never returned. He did not even make a counter offer. Instead, he launched the uprising that began in September 2000.

 

The Jewish Position

 

With Arab intentions so clear, why has Israel staked its future on a hope that it can secure peace by trading land? There are at least three key reasons.

1) Humanistic Leadership — Menachem Begin is the only Prime Minister of Israel who has been an observant Jew. All others have been marginal believers, if not atheists or agnostics. Accordingly, the prevailing philosophy among Israeli leaders has been humanism, with its faith in the goodness of Man. This philosophy has entrapped the leaders in self-deception, convincing them that if they will only be kind and gracious toward their enemy, then their enemy will reciprocate. It was this type of muddle-headed thinking that prompted Yitzak Rabin and Shimon Peres to believe they could charm and placate the Arabs through a policy of appeasement.

 

2) Desire for Acceptance — Throughout their long history, the Jewish people have had a desire for acceptance. When they demanded that Samuel provide them with a king, he warned them that a king would abuse and exploit them. But they refused to listen to Samuel’s warnings because, as they put it, “we want to be like all the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:20). God set the Jewish people apart to be a witness of Him (Isaiah 43:10-12), and they have never liked that role. Again, the Jewish leadership has deceived itself into believing that if it will only give in to world pressure regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, then the world will accept Israel. The truth is that no matter what Israel does, the world will continue to hate the Jews and their state.

 

3) American Pressure — Because the United States is Israel’s only ally in the world, they are particularly responsive to pressure from us. We may be their only ally, but we have been unwilling to come down decisively on their side because of our interest in procuring Arab oil and our desire to build an Arab coalition against terrorism. We are the ones, in fact, who forced them to the negotiating table to trade land for peace. It all occurred in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and a flood of Jewish refugees began to return to Israel. For over a year, 2,000 to 3,000 refugees arrived each day! The Israeli government was swamped by the demands for food and housing and jobs. They appealed to the world bank for a $5 billion loan. The bank responded by saying they would provide the loan only if it were guaranteed by the United States. The Bush Administration dug in its heels and demanded that the Israelis start trading land for peace in order to get the loan guarantee. That is how the Israelis got started down the self-destructive road of appeasement.

 

The Folly of Appeasement

History makes it clear that a policy of appeasement always leads to war because it merely whets the appetite of the aggressor. But from 1991 to 2000, the Israeli leadership ignored the lessons of history and fervently pursued its policy of trading land for peace.

 

The turning point came in the summer of 2000 when Ehud Barak caved in to Palestinian terror and offered Arafat everything except the keys to the Knesset. When Arafat refused even to consider the offer, the eyes of the Israeli people were opened to the truth that Arafat was not interested in peace. They finally realized that he was determined to take all of Israel.

That realization produced an earthquake in Israeli public opinion. The voters decided to wash their hands of Barak and his party of equivocators. They turned to Ariel Sharon, a strong leader who had never been deceived by Arab intentions. Sharon was elected Prime Minister in February of 2001, and his determination to draw the line on what Israel is willing to surrender for peace has resulted in all the world coming together against Israel over the issue of Jerusalem, just as prophesied by Zechariah.

Crucial Questions

Why has God regathered the Jews to their homeland? What is the likely future of Israel? What does it all mean to the Church?

 

The Regathering

God has regathered the Jews from the four corners of the earth because He has a plan of redemption for a great remnant of them. His plan is to gather them to their homeland and bring all the nations of the world together against them over the issue of the control of Jerusalem. This will ultimately lead to another holocaust that will be worse than the one perpetrated by the Nazis. Zechariah says that two-thirds of the Jews will die (Zechariah 13:8). But out of that horrible experience, the Jews will be brought to the end of themselves, with no one to turn to for help except God. That’s when the remnant will repent of their rejection of the Messiah and will accept Him as their Savior (Zechariah 12:10 and 13:1). The apostle Paul taught this concept in the New Testament in Romans 9-11. He argues that a great remnant of the Jews (Romans 9:27) will turn to the Lord and be saved (Romans 11:25-26).

The Likely Future

There are some tough days ahead for the Jews of Israel. I believe the most likely scenario is a major war that will result in Arab missile attacks on Tel Aviv and Haifa. To survive, the Israelis will have to respond with nuclear weapons. This is probably the reason the Bible teaches that Damascus will cease to exist in the end times (Isaiah 17:1-14 and Jeremiah 49:23-27).

With the destruction of Damascus, the Arab world will be thrown into a panic. That’s when they will call for help from their natural ally, the Russians. The Russians will then send a great army to destroy Israel. The Russians will be motivated not only by their ingrained anti-Semitism, but also by their desire to seize all the Arab oil fields in the Middle East.

The Bible says the Russian army will be destroyed supernaturally on the hills of Israel in such a way that even the Israelis will know that they were not responsible for it (Ezekiel 38:17-23 and 39:1-6). At that point the whole world will be thrown into a panic, and that atmosphere of hysteria will provide the perfect opportunity for the Antichrist to step forward with the “perfect” plan for peace in the Middle East.

The Meaning for the Church

Why should Gentiles in the Church of the 21st Century be concerned about what is happening among the Jewish people in the Middle East today? Why should we be following the events in that part of the world with bated breath? Why should we be concerned about the survival of Israel? Why should we be searching the Scriptures daily concerning prophecies about the Middle East? Why should we be praying daily for the peace of Jerusalem? There are three reasons.

The events in the Middle East are proof that God is faithful to His promises. God is fulfilling in detail promises that He made to the Jewish people 2,500 years ago. And as we see each of these promises fulfilled, we can likewise be assured that God is going to fulfill every promise He has made to the Church.

God has promised that one day soon, Jesus will appear in the heavens, the dead in Christ will be resurrected, the living believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the sky, and both the living and dead will be given new, glorified bodies. We will return to heaven with Jesus where we will be judged of our works to determine our degrees of reward. We will also celebrate our union with Jesus in a great feast that will symbolize the union of the Bride (the Church) with her Bridegroom (Jesus).

We will then return to earth with Jesus to see Him crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will reign over all the world from Jerusalem. We will be scattered all over the world to assist Him in His reign, serving as mayors, governors, presidents, judges, and teachers. We will see the earth flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice — as the waters cover the sea.

At the end of His reign, we will be transferred to the new Jerusalem He is preparing now. From that vantage point, we will watch as the earth is superheated with fire, and the pollution of Satan’s last revolt is burned away. Out of that fiery inferno will come a new earth. We will then be lowered down to that new earth inside the new Jerusalem, and God Himself will descend to the new earth to live in our presence forever.

Those are the marvelous promises that have been made to what the Bible calls “overcomers” (Revelation 21: 1-7) — that is, to those who have placed their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior (1 John 5:1-5). As I witness God fulfilling His promises to the Jews, my hope soars concerning the promises God has made to the Church. I know He will fulfill every one of them.

The events in the Middle East are a testimony to God’s unfathomable grace. Think about it for a moment — any god created by the mind of Man would have annihilated the Jews a long time ago. Only a God of grace would have put up with the Jews and continued to love them. Their own prophets refer to them as “stiff-necked,” “stubborn,” and “rebellious.” Yet, despite their rejection of God as king of their nation, and their rejection of His Son as king of their hearts, God continues to love them and pursue them with the intention of bringing a great remnant to salvation. That’s grace.

When I first started preaching about the Jews, my wife came to me and said, “When you emphasize how much God loves the Jews, you make me want to be a Jew.” I made two points in response. First, I told her that she really didn’t want to be a Jew because if she were one, the overwhelming odds are that she would have a spiritual veil over her eyes that would keep her from recognizing Jesus as her Messiah. Then I made an even more important point. I stated that God is not doing one thing for the Jews that He is not willing to do for everyone.

The Jews continue to this day to be witnesses of God. Their history shows what it means to have a relationship with God. When they are faithful, He blesses. When they are rebellious, He disciplines. When they repent, He forgives and forgets and starts blessing again. And so it is with any person or nation.

The Jews are currently under discipline. They have not yet repented, and they therefore do not deserve to be regathered to their homeland. They do not merit God’s love and care. But neither do you or I. The only thing any of us deserve is death. We have hope only because our God is a God of grace.

The events in the Middle East are evidence that Jesus is returning soon. The Bible says that Jesus will return when the Jews are back in their homeland and their capital city. It also says that it will be a time when all the world has come together against Israel over the issue of the control of Jerusalem. The Jewish state was re-established on May 14, 1948. The Jews re-occupied the city of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967. Since 1991, all the world has been pressuring the Israeli government to surrender all or part of Jerusalem. The fulfillment of these prophecies makes it clear that we are on the threshold of the Tribulation. That means the Rapture of the Church is imminent. Jesus is at the very gates of Heaven, waiting for His Father’s command to return. We are living on borrowed time.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), and remember, that when you do so, you are really praying for the return of Jesus, for Jerusalem will not enjoy true peace until the Prince of Peace returns.

Middle East Crisis in Biblical Perspective

The Land of Israel - To whom does it belong?  By Dr. David R. Reagan

https://christinprophecy.org/articles/the-land-of-israel/

 

The answer is really very simple. God gave the land of Israel to Abraham (Genesis 17:8) and to his descendants through Isaac (Genesis 26:2-5) and Jacob (Genesis 28:1-4,13-14).

That means the land belongs to the descendants of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. In other words, the land belongs to the children of Israel, referred to in the New Testament as the Jews (Romans 1:16).

Some immediately protest this claim by arguing that the Abrahamic Covenant has been abrogated either by the Cross or by the disobedience of the Jews. But the Bible clearly teaches that the Abrahamic Covenant is an everlasting one that is still in effect (Genesis 17:71 Chronicles 16:17-18Psalm 105:8-11; and Romans 9:4).

As to the effect of the Jew’s rejection of Jesus, Paul specifically addresses this question in Romans 3. He asks a rhetorical question: “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?” For almost two thousand years the Church has answered this question with a resounding, Yes! But Paul answers it differently. He says, “May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar…” (Romans 3:1-4).

Further, Paul states in Romans 11 that the disobedience of the Jews has not nullified the promises of God to them, “for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). God’s promises are going to be fulfilled to a believing remnant (Romans 9: 27). In fact, in Romans 9:4, Paul specifically states that God’s promises to the Jews are still valid.

Two Land Covenants

What most people do not know is that there are two Old Testament covenants pertaining to the land of Israel. The Abrahamic Covenant gives the title of the land to the Jews in perpetuity. A later covenant, the Mosaic Land Covenant — or Canaan Covenant — of Deuteronomy 28-30 defines the conditions for possession and enjoyment of the land.

This latter covenant is often referred to as the “Palestinian Covenant,” but that is a misnomer, for the land was never called Palestine until after the second Jewish revolt in 132-135 A.D. At that time the Romans dubbed it “Palestine” to erase the memory of its Jewish heritage and to insult the Jews, for Palestine is the Latin word for Philistine, the ancient enemy of Israel.

Let me illustrate the role and relationship of these two covenants with a modern day example. Let’s say you buy a car for a child of yours and put the title in the child’s name. But you explain to the child that there are conditions for using the car — such as no speeding. And you warn your child that a speeding ticket will result in the loss of the privilege of driving the car for a period of two weeks. If the child gets a ticket and you lock the car up in the garage for two weeks, the car still belongs to the child because the child’s name is on the title. But the child has temporarily lost possession of the vehicle.

In like manner, the Abrahamic Covenant (about 2,000 B.C.) gave the title of the land to the Jews for eternity. The Canaan Covenant (about 1,250 B.C.) defined the terms for possession and use of the land. Title and possession are not the same thing. The Jews have lost possession of the land from time to time, but they have never lost their God-given title.

The Canaan Covenant

The Land Covenant promised that Israel would become the prime nation of the world if the Jews were obedient to God (Deuteronomy 28:1,13). But the covenant warned that many curses would befall the people if they were disobedient (Deuteronomy 28:15-37), including exile from the land (Deuteronomy 28:38-57). The covenant warned further that if temporary exile did not restore the Jews to obedience, they would suffer worldwide dispersion and persecution (Deuteronomy 28:58-68). But nowhere are they told that their disobedience would lead to a loss of their title to the land.

In fact, the Land Covenant ends in chapter 30 with a prophecy and a promise that a day will come — after the Jews have experienced the curses of the covenant — when the Lord will restore them to their land once again: “The Lord will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:3-5).

For almost 1,900 years the Jews wandered among the nations and suffered severe persecution, just as prophesied in Deuteronomy 28. During that time, their land became desolate as prophesied in Deuteronomy 29. But in this century, God has regathered them from the four corners of the earth, re-established them in their land, and transformed their land from wilderness to milk and honey — as prophesied in Deuteronomy 30.

The only prophecy left to be fulfilled in the Land Covenant is the spiritual salvation of the gathered remnant (Deuteronomy 30:6-8). That will occur soon when they repent and accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

The Abrahamic and Land Covenants make it clear that the Jewish people have both the right to the land of Israel and the right to be back in it today.

The Arab Covenant

Where does this leave the Arabs? As descendants of Abraham’s son, Ishmael, they too have a promise, but it is not a land promise. The covenant God made with Ishmael had to do with the number of his descendants. Ishmael was promised that his descendants would be “multiplied exceedingly” (Genesis 17:20).

God has faithfully kept His promise to the descendants of Ishmael. Today there are 21 Arab states with a combined population of 175 million Arabs. There is only one Jewish state with a population of nearly 6 million. The Arab states contain 5.3 million square miles of oil rich land. Israel has only 8 thousand square miles of land with no major oil reserves that have been discovered, though plenty of natural gas off of the coast. That’s a population ratio of 43 to 1 and a land ratio of 662 to 1!

The Palestinian Claim

But what about the Palestinian people? Don’t they deserve a state? Keep in mind first of all that a Palestinian state never existed prior to this century. From 70 A.D. to 1948 the geographical area known as Palestine was never an independent state nor did the Arabs residing there have any consciousness of themselves as a separate nation of people. They regarded themselves as Syrians. Also, keep in mind that Jerusalem has never served as the capital of any Arab nation, whereas it has been considered the capital of the Jewish people since 1,000 B.C.

Also noteworthy is the fact that when the West Bank and Gaza were under Jordanian autonomy from 1948 to 1967, there was not any effort to create a separate Palestinian state. The PLO was formed during that time, not for the purpose of creating a Palestinian State, but rather for the purpose of exterminating the Jewish state.

Equally important is the fact that a Palestinian state already exists — and it is four times larger than Israel! The Palestinian state is Jordan. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the British originally promised all the Palestinian Mandate to the Jews as a national homeland. But in 1922 they broke that promise by using 77% of the Mandate to create the Arab state of Jordan. Today that state’s population is 75% Palestinian.

The True Arab Goal

Then why do the Arabs demand the creation of a Palestinian state within the boundaries of current day Israel? The answer is simple. The real Arab goal is not the establishment of another Palestinian state. The true goal is the destruction of Israel.

In fact, now deceased former PLO leader Yasser Arafat originally spelled out his strategy to the Arab world, and the strategy was adopted officially by the PLO in 1974. It is called “the phased plan.” Realizing that he could not defeat Israel with war or terrorism, he decided that the road to victory was deceptive diplomacy. He would talk about peace in return for land, while rallying the anti-Israeli Western powers to put pressure on the Israeli government to capitulate. Once he got a toe-hold in the land, he would then use that as a base for renewed attacks on Israel. In short, he would take Israel in phases. It is a clever strategy that he spelled out in detail in many public speeches, just as Hitler outlined his strategy in detail in Mein Kampf.

The World’s Demand

The world insists that the Jews must trade land for peace. But trading land for peace only whets the appetite of the aggressor. Israel has returned the Sinai to Egypt twice, and the Egyptians are still bristling with hostility toward Israel, even moreso since President Hosni Mubarak was taken out of power.

Furthermore, Israel doesn’t have any territory to give away. It is one of the world’s smallest nations. Turning the West Bank over to hostile Arabs would put the enemy of Israel within 11 miles of Tel Aviv. No government in its right mind would agree to such insanity.

Why then did the government of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (who is now Israel’s President) agree to the initiation of the current peace process? The answer is deception. They were deceived by the PLO and the Western nations. Worst of all, they had deceived themselves.

Their self-deception was rooted in their Humanistic view of the world. Keep in mind that there was not a single believer in God among the top circle of Israeli leaders in the Rabin government. They were all either atheists or agnostics. Politically, they were either socialists or liberal humanists. This means that they believed in the basic goodness of Man. Translated into foreign policy, it means that they believed that if they treated their enemies with fairness and trust, their enemies would reciprocate. They simply could not bring themselves to believe that their enemies are determined to destroy them.

Imbecilic Policy

Ignoring all the harsh lessons of history, Rabin and Peres embarked on a policy of appeasement, hoping that they could satisfy the appetite of their enemies by giving them land for peace. History proves conclusively that appeasement always has the opposite effect — namely, it encourages the aggressor to want more.

Chamberlain found that out when he tried to satisfy Hitler by trading him the Sudetenland for peace. Chamberlain turned out to be a fool. But Rabin and Peres made Chamberlain look good. After all, he at least was not foolish enough to trade some of the territory of Britain for peace! No, he gave away another nation’s land. Rabin and Peres sought to trade their own land, land that would put their sworn enemy in the very heart of their nation.

Implacable Enemies

What makes all this particularly ludicrous is the fact that Yasser Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas did not even attempt to hide their true intentions. Arafat promised that in return for receiving autonomy over Gaza and Jericho he would have the PLO rescind the clauses in its covenant that call for the destruction of Israel. They got control over both Gaza and Jericho, but to this day the Fatah/Hamas government still has not even attempted to get the PLO to amend its charter.

Even worse, Arafat continued to speak openly about his intention to take Jerusalem. The ink was hardly dry on the “peace” accord when he gave a speech in South Africa advocating a jihad to “liberate” Jerusalem. A jihad is a holy war! Again, Rabin and Peres made excuses for him, as did the U.S. State Department. They explained that Arafat was just saying what he had to say to placate his Arab enemies, and that he really didn’t mean what he was saying. That’s exactly what the Western European leaders kept saying about Hitler — “He doesn’t really mean it.” Well, he meant it, and so did Arafat and now Abbas today.

Insolent Allies

The Israeli leaders have also been deceived by the West. The United States and its Western allies have talked the government of Israel into doing something that every Israeli leader in the past said the nation would never do, and that is to place the survival of the country in the hands of foreigners. The Western nations keep whispering soothing assurances that they will “guarantee” the peace. But when the “peace” evaporates into all out war, Israel will discover that the Western world will back off and leave the nation to fend for itself. The bottom line is that Israel is no Kuwait. Israel has no oil, and Israel is full of Jews whom the world hates.

The current “peace” process is a prescription for war, and it will be the bloodiest war in the history of the Middle East. I believe it will be a war that will lead up to the climax of the current age, ushering in the Tribulation.

The Jews’ Resolve

The Jews must stand firm in their determination to maintain the territorial integrity of the land God gave them. In doing so, they will bring the wrath of the nations upon themselves. The prophet Zechariah says that all the nations of the world will come together against Israel in the end times (Zechariah 12:3).

But God will sustain the Jewish people, for they are the “apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). The Word of God says Philistia is finished — “melted away” (Isaiah 14:29-32). And the Word says that once the Jews are reestablished in the their land, “they will never be rooted up again” (Amos 9:14-15).

Let all the world come together against God’s Chosen. The Lord sits in the heavens and laughs (Psalm 2:4), for He has the wisdom and power to orchestrate all the evil of Man to the fulfillment of His purposes (Psalm 76:10).

Imminent Scenario

What is likely to happen next? Here is the most likely scenario that I can foresee at the moment. Hamas, the fundamentalist Arab terrorist organization funded by Iran, will take complete control over the Palestinian autonomous areas. Hamas will then unleash a renewed reign of terror on Israel, continuing their lobbing of rockets from Gaza and Jericho to back up their demand for control of Jerusalem.

Abbas will orchestrate world pressure on Israel through the United Nations and the Vatican. In September of this year he will likely proclaim a Palestinian state and then demand that Jerusalem be “liberated” or internationalized.

Since even the most liberal Israelis take the position that Jerusalem is non-negotiable, the pressure will mount toward an inevitable conflict. If Hamas does not unleash the rockets first, then Abbas will ultimately return to the method he knows best — terror.

This will prompt an Israeli counter attack, which, in turn, will motivate the Arab states to come to the defense of the Palestinians. This could very well lead to Syria launching an all out missile attack on Tel Aviv in order to reclaim the Golan Heights and turn attention away from their civilian upheavals.

If that ominous event should occur, the Israelis will be forced to use their ultimate weapon to survive. They will strike Damascus with nuclear weapons. This will fulfill the prophecies that state that Damascus will cease to exist in the end times (Isaiah 17:1-3 and Jeremiah 49:23-27).

In panic, the Arab states will then turn to their natural ally for help — the Russians. And the likelihood is that the Russian government will be only too happy to send an army into the Middle East to destroy Israel (and grab the Arab oil fields in the process).

That is when the Lord will step in personally to destroy the Russian hordes on the mountains of Israel in a supernatural way so that even the Israelis will realize that their deliverance came from the Lord and not from their own military might (Ezekiel 38 and 39).

As the whole world panics on the brink of World War III, a dynamic, charismatic political leader from Europe will step into the vacuum and propose an ingenious solution that will result in peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors — a peace that will enable the Jews to rebuild their Temple.

We live in exciting times when we can watch prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes. The events are ominous and overwhelming, but we can stand firm with great hope because we know that God is on His throne and that He is in control.

The events we are currently witnessing point to the imminent return of Yeshua, and when He returns, the world will be flooded with peace and righteousness, and Israel will enjoy the blessings of territorial integrity and peace forevermore (Zechariah 8:1-8).

The Land of Israel - To whom does it belong?

EXPOSING THE LIE OF ISRAEL APARTHEID

https://richard-kemp.com/exposing-the-lie-of-israel-apartheid/

Last month the UN General Assembly re-affirmed its implacable hostility to one of its own member states. It voted overwhelmingly — 125-8, with 34 abstentions — to fund an unprecedented permanent Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commission of inquiry (COI) into allegations of war crimes and human rights abuse by Israel. Taxpayers’ funds will pay an eyewatering $5.5 million budget in the first year alone, well over twice that of the UNHRC commission investigating the Syrian civil war.

Since its creation in 2006, the council has established 32 inquiries, nine of which — one-third — have focused entirely on Israel. But this latest COI is the first open-ended inquiry it has set up. It has no time-limit and no restriction on its scope. The US voted against the move, saying it ‘perpetuates a practice of unfairly singling out Israel in the UN’. Among the abstainers was Australia, whose representative said, with characteristic plain-speaking: ‘We oppose anti-Israel bias.’

As the US, Australia and others fear, it is inevitable that Israel will be falsely pronounced guilty of the ‘systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity’ that the COI says it will probe.

I understand the COI plans to explicitly brand Israel an ‘apartheid state’. This lie will be taken up across the world, fuelling antisemitic hatred against Jews everywhere. It will contribute to what Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described this week as an imminent debate ‘unprecedented in its venom, or in its radioactivity, around the words, “Israel as an apartheid state”.’

The lie of ‘Israeli apartheid’ was dreamt up in Moscow during the Cold War and driven home by a relentless Soviet propaganda campaign until it took hold in the UN and across the Middle East and the West. This included the repeated comparison of Israel with South Africa in the Soviet media and in books such as ‘Zionism and Apartheid’, an official state publication of Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.

The sometimes naive, sometimes malign students who will again be holding their poisonous ‘Israel apartheid week’ at universities across the globe this year will be parroting the same Soviet propaganda as their predecessors have done for decades. They, and many other Israel-haters use the apartheid slogan regardless of the reality that under no rational measure can Israel be considered an apartheid state. They do so because its meaning is easily understood, it disgusts people and rallies them to the anti-Israel cause. That is why it was invented by Moscow.

The apartheid smear is just one part of the greatest slur campaign in history, organized over many years against Israel by the Kremlin with the KGB in the lead, utilising the formidable resources of intelligence services of the USSR. It was perhaps the most successful disinformation campaign — of many — in Soviet history. It endures and gains strength even today, more than 50 years after it was first conceived and 30 years after the USSR collapsed.

It is worth understanding how this malevolent project originated and evolved, not only to help defend against the continuing political warfare waged on Israel and Jews, but also as a case study for the ongoing disinformation campaigns against the West by authoritarian states such as Russia, China and Iran. To gain even a superficial insight into this carefully contrived scheme we must take a trip back into history.

When Israel was re-established in 1948, following UN General Assembly Resolution 181, the new state initially pursued a policy of non-alignment. Surrounded by enemies, it needed economic support and arms from either or both the USA and USSR or their allies. Given the socialist political influences in Israel, the Soviet leadership expected the country would turn towards communism and align with the USSR, thus strengthening Soviet power in the Middle East and its wider competition with the West. One of Stalin’s main reasons for quickly recognising Israel in 1948 was the intention to use it to undermine British dominion in the Middle East.

Even with significant Soviet covert and overt efforts to lure Israel into its fold, this may have been a vain hope from the beginning. In any case, the pressures of the Cold War in the 1950s, as well as domestic political considerations and concerns over antisemitism inside the Soviet Union, led Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion to align his country with the West, beginning with support for US-led UN intervention in Korea, against the Soviet will.

Israel’s participation with the UK and France in the 1956 Suez campaign further alienated the Soviet government, which wrote a letter to Jerusalem (as well as to Paris and London) threatening rocket attacks and promising direct military support to the Egyptian army.

 

The breakdown in Israel-Soviet relations was later compounded by Israel’s defensive victories against the Arabs in 1967 and again in 1973. Over this period, all hope of Israel becoming a Soviet client had steadily evaporated. Arab armies sponsored, trained and equipped by the USSR had been humiliated, and so had Moscow. Thus the Soviets progressively developed a policy of undermining Israel. Their primary objective was to use the country as a weapon in their Cold War struggle against the US and the West.

The Kremlin understood that conventional attacks against Israel could not succeed, so instead focused on using Arabs as terrorist proxies, directing, training, funding and arming groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), PFLP-General Command (PFLP-GC), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and Fatah to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets, including wave after wave of aircraft hijacking.

The Soviets employed the same terrorist tactics elsewhere, including in Europe, using proxies such as Baader-Meinhof and the Red Army Factions. The details of Moscow-sponsored terrorist operations in the Middle East and elsewhere are set out in 25,000 pages of KGB documents copied and then smuggled out of Russia in the early 1990s by senior KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and now lodged in the UK, at Churchill College, Cambridge.

General Ion Pacepa, chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence service, played a significant role in Soviet bloc operations directed against Israel and the US. In 1978 he became the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to defect from the Soviet sphere and, among many secret revelations, provided details of KGB operations against Israel.

 

Pacepa says the chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov (later Brezhnev’s successor as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party), told him:

‘We needed to instil a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States.’

An important element of Moscow’s anti-Israel/US campaign in the Middle East was a propaganda war. Andropov told Pacepa:

 

‘Islam was obsessed with preventing the infidels’ occupation of its territory, and it would be highly receptive to our characterization of the US Congress as a rapacious Zionist body aiming to turn the world into a Jewish fiefdom.’

In other words, he knew that the Arabs would be easy tools in the anti-Israel propaganda war and were already playing their part. Their work only needed to be focused, intensified and funded.

To achieve its objectives, the Kremlin devised Operation SIG, a disinformation campaign intended ‘to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the US’. Pacepa reported that by 1978, under Operation SIG, the KGB had sent some 4,000 Soviet bloc ‘agents of influence’ into Islamic countries to help achieve this. They also printed and circulated vast amounts of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda, translated into Arabic.

This included the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, a fabricated antisemitic text setting out supposedly secret plans of the Jews to rule the world by manipulating the economy, controlling the media and fostering religious conflict. It was written by agents of the Tsarist secret police and subsequently used by the Nazis in their antisemitic propaganda.

As well as mobilising the Arabs to the Soviet cause, Andropov and his KGB colleagues needed to appeal to the democratic world. To do so, the Kremlin decided to turn the conflict from one that sought simply to destroy Israel into a struggle for human rights and national liberation from an illegitimate American-sponsored imperialist occupier. They set about transforming the narrative of the conflict from religious jihad — in which Islamic doctrine demands that any land that has ever been under Muslim control must be regained for Islam — to secular nationalism and political self-determination, something far more palatable to Western democracies. This would provide cover for a vicious terrorist war, even garnering widespread support for it.

To achieve their goal, the Soviets had to create a Palestinian national identity that did not hitherto exist and a narrative that Jews had no rights to the land and were naked aggressors. According to Pacepa, the KGB created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the early 1960s, as they had also orchestrated so-called national liberation armies in several other parts of the world. He says the 1964 Palestinian National Charter was drafted in Moscow. This document was fundamental to the invention and establishment of an artificial Palestinian nationhood.

The initial charter did not claim the West Bank or the Gaza Strip for ‘Palestine’. In fact, it explicitly repudiated any rights to these lands, falsely recognising them respectively as Jordanian and Egyptian sovereign territories. Instead, the PLO claim was to the rest of Israel. This was amended after the 1967 war, when Israel ejected the illegal Jordanian and Egyptian occupiers, and the West Bank and Gaza for the first time were re-branded as Palestinian territory.

The first mention of a ‘Palestinian people’ to mean Arabs in Palestine appeared in the 1964 charter. Previously, and particularly during the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine 1919-1948, ‘Palestinians’ had been commonly used to describe Jews living in the territory.

 

Zuheir Mohsen, a senior PLO leader, admitted in 1977:

‘The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity… Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons.’

This reality has been publicly supported, sometimes inadvertently, in statements by several other Palestinian leaders. Quoted by Alan Hart in his 1984 book, ‘Arafat: A Political Biography’, PLO leader Yasser Arafat himself said:

‘The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasir Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel.’

 

Moscow first took its campaign to brand Israeli Jews as the oppressors of their invented “Palestinian people” to the UN in 1965. Their attempts to categorise Zionism as racism failed at that attempt but succeeded almost a decade later in the infamous UN General Assembly Resolution 3379. Its determination that ‘Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination’ was revoked under US pressure in 1991 but by then had gained great traction and is frequently cited today by anti-Israel campaigners.

The Mitrokhin documents show that both Yasser Arafat, and his successor as PLO chief, Mahmoud Abbas, now President of the Palestinian Authority, were KGB agents. Both were instrumental in the KGB’s disinformation operations as well as its terrorist campaigns.

 

Moscow, through Egypt, had installed Arafat as leader of the PLO in 1969 and its support kept him there in the face of internal dissent following the PLO’s expulsion from Jordan in 1970. According to Pacepa:

‘In 1969 the KGB asked Arafat to declare war on American “imperial-Zionism” … It appealed to him so much, Arafat later claimed to have invented the imperial-Zionist battle cry. But in fact, “imperial-Zionism” was a Moscow invention, a modern adaptation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and long a favorite tool of Russian intelligence to foment ethnic hatred. The KGB always regarded anti-Semitism plus anti-imperialism as a rich source of anti-Americanism.’

Moscow had assigned to Romania the task of supporting the PLO, and Pacepa was Arafat’s handler during his KGB career. He provided Arafat with $200,000 of laundered cash every month throughout the 1970s. Pacepa also facilitated Arafat’s relationship with Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu, a master propagandist who had been given the job of schooling him in hoodwinking the West. For his dealings with Washington, Ceaușescu told Arafat in 1978: ‘You simply have to keep on pretending that you’ll break with terrorism and that you’ll recognize Israel — over, and over, and over.’

Ceaușescu’s advice was reinforced by North Vietnamese communist General Vo Nguyen Giap, whom Arafat met several times: ‘Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.’ (David Meir-Levi, ‘History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression’.)

 

An internal KGB document among the Mitrokhin archives reported: ‘Krotov [Mahmoud Abbas’s cover-name] is an agent of the KGB.’ The KGB definition of agents is: those who ‘consistently, systematically and covertly carry out intelligence assignments, while maintaining secret contact with an official in the agency’.

Among other tasks, Abbas was used by the KGB to spread propaganda accusing ‘Western Imperialism and Zionism’ of cooperating with the Nazis. He attended a Moscow university controlled by the KGB in the early 1980s.There, under the supervision of his professor who later became a senior communist politician, Abbas wrote a doctoral dissertation denying the Holocaust and accusing Zionists of assisting Hitler.

Abbas is now entering the 18th year of his four-year elected term of office. Like his predecessor Arafat, his consistent rejection of every offer of peace with Israel, while concurrently talking the talk about peace and sponsoring terrorism, shows the residual influence of his Soviet masters.

The KGB disinformation campaign transformed the image of Israel from regional underdogs, surrounded by powerful enemies, into widely hated colonialist oppressors and occupiers of the downtrodden Palestinian people, a narrative that remains as strong as ever today.

Meanwhile the Palestinian movement created by Moscow, in the words of American historian David Meir-Levi, is ‘the only national movement for political self-determination in the entire world, and across all of world history, to have the destruction of a sovereign state and the genocide of a people as its only raison d’être’. This remains explicit in Hamas’s charter, while somewhat more opaque in the Soviet-influenced utterances of Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, especially those directed towards the West.

Moscow’s campaign was significantly undermined by the 2020 rapprochement between Israel and several Arab states. The lesson here is the importance of American political will against authoritarian propaganda, which led to the game-changing Abraham Accords. Had this project been vigorously pursued after its initial success, it might have eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet-initiated Palestinian project and perhaps a form of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. It might yet achieve that if the US again musters the resolve to carry it through.

Meanwhile the December UN General Assembly vote and the Human Rights Council’s determination to brand Israel a racist, apartheid state prove that the Soviet Cold War narrative remains alive and well. Most Western nations also still slavishly follow the Soviet programme.

Britain, for example, already aligned with Arab states against Israel because of both oil and antisemitism among influential politicians and officials, was more than willing from the start to swallow the Soviet invention of a struggle between Palestinian nationalism and Jewish oppression, hook, line and sinker. Today you will not hear any statement about Israel from any government official or minister that does not echo the KGB’s line.

Increasing media-driven erosion of popular support for Israel in the US, and the suppurating divisions it causes, are evidence of the Soviet ghosts’ success against their primary target: America.

The chief victims, however, have been Palestinian Arabs, whose lives have been worsened; and Jews in the diaspora who have suffered immeasurable antisemitism based on Soviet-initiated propaganda. The former may not have been intended but would have been of no concern to Moscow; the latter was very much part of the plan.

Israelis of course have paid a great price from KGB-inspired terrorism and propaganda, but have survived and flourished even under such enormous pressure. North Vietnamese General Giap, who once advised Arafat as we have seen, has an explanation for this, as recounted by Dr Eran Lerman, former Israeli deputy national security adviser. According to Giap:

‘The Palestinians are always coming here and saying to me, “You expelled the French and the Americans. How do we expel the Jews?” I tell them that the French went back to France and the Americans to America. But the Jews have nowhere to go. You will not expel them.’

Col Richard Kemp reveals the TRUTH about the Israel-Gaza conflict (Christians United for Israel UK)

 

CUFI UK's Des Starritt interviews Col Richard Kemp and gets his expert analysis on the current situation between Israel and the Palestinians and reveals truths not reported in many media outlets.

 

Follow Col Richard Kemp on Twitter: https://twitter.com/COLRICHARDKEMP

 

For the latest on Christians United for Israel UK:

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EXPOSING THE LIE OF ISRAEL APARTHEID

The Enigma of Colonel Richard Kemp CBE explained in his own Words

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-enigma-of-colonel-richard-kemp-cbe-explained-in-his-own-words/

“Why?” was the question I asked Colonel Richard Kemp CBE during our recent meeting in Jerusalem.  Why is the former head of the British military in Afghanistan, who is neither Jewish or Israeli, such an outspoken, eloquent and effective defender of the IDF and the Jewish State?  He began his answer with this statement,

I was taught when I was a child to know right from wrong.  And when I hear some of the lies, the propaganda and the malice that’s churned out in the international media, in universities, in high schools and so-called “human rights” groups, I know it’s wrong.  I know it’s wrong what’s being said in relation to the IDF (Israel Defense Force). 

Colonel Kemp then went on to explain that he served as the Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, and was a veteran of thirty years-service, and that he had fought in combat zones around the world including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Macedonia and Iraq, and that he was also present throughout the conflicts in Gaza in 2014 and the most recent “Operation Guardian of the Walls”  in May this year, when the Iranian-backed Hamas Terror organization fired thousands of rockets into Israel.

He added that based on his experience and on his personal observations: the IDF does more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.  He gave three main reasons for this.  Firstly, Israel is a decent country with Western values, run on democratic principles. Israel has no more interest in war than Belgium does. In fact, Israel has never started a war. The only reason it ever goes to war is to defend itself. And it has to defend itself because, unlike Belgium, it is surrounded by countries and armed groups that want to destroy it. Secondly, Judaism, with its unsurpassed moral standards, remains a major influence on the citizens of Israel. “I say this as a non-Jew.”  Thirdly, the army is composed overwhelmingly of citizen soldiers. Israel is a small country with a small professional army.

He also went on to express admiration for “Lone Soldiers” from abroad.  During his visit he met with Harriet and Mark Levin, the parents of fallen Lone Soldier Michael Levin z”l (whose 15th Jahrzeit was commemorated by the Levins, IDF comrades and friends on Mt Herzl this month)  He said about Lone Soldiers,

They come to a country with a different culture from they are used to back home.  They have to learn a different language, if they don’t speak Hebrew, and they are potentially putting their life on the line for Israel, and that deserves everybody’s admiration. 

 

I hate to see young men and woman maligned for defending the Jewish State.  Meanwhile when they get back to their barracks they watch CNN, BBC and numerous news outlets calling them war criminals.  I find that very hard to stomach, so I have to do what I can to stick up for them.

Referring the IDF in another interview, Colonel Kemp mentioned that to fight a war it depends on its conscripts and its reservists. The reservists are ordinary citizens, from professors to plumbers, called upon to defend their homes. They don’t want to be fighting and they don’t want to harm others. Nowhere, he said, was the essential morality and decency of the IDF more evident than in the Gaza War of 2014 and the recent 2021 conflict. If ever there was a purely defensive war, this was it.  The war was started by Hamas, the terror organization, designated as such by the US State Department, that runs the Gaza strip.  After repeated warnings from Israel to stop, the Israeli Air Force finally conducted precision strikes to halt the rocket-fire and worked to destroy a network of terror tunnels that Hamas had constructed to attack Israeli communities near the Gaza border.

The IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping millions of leaflets, broadcasting radio messages, sending texts and making tens of thousands of phone calls. The Israelis called Gazans on their cell phones and told them to leave their residences and move to safety. Never in the history of warfare has an army phoned its enemy and told them where they are going to drop their bombs!

Many IDF missions that could have taken out Hamas military capabilities were aborted to prevent civilian casualties, increasing the risk to Israeli citizens and soldiers.  Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. Every war is chaotic and confusing, and mistakes are frequent. But mistakes are not war crimes.

Hamas, Kemp said, on the other hand, committed war crimes as official government policy. Hamas deliberately positioned its military assets among the civilian population, hiding weapons in schools and hospitals, and placing rocket launchers alongside apartment buildings, then forced those civilians to stay in areas they knew would be attacked. They also instructed their people to report the lie that every Gazan killed (sometimes by their own rockets) was a civilian, even if they were actually fighters.  He concluded our interview by stating,

No army takes such risks in order to protect civilians as the Israeli army does. I say this as a professional soldier. I say it because it’s true and people who care about truth should know it.  The final thing I would say is that the IDF are our friends  and allies, and they are fighting the same war we are to protect western civilization.  How could any civilized and right-thinking westerner not support that fight?  I one-hundred-percent unequivocally and completely support the IDF and all the soldiers in it.

We salute you Colonel Kemp for all that you do for our country and military.  You are a great friend of the Jewish people, the IDF and state of Israel.  Thank you for consistently and eloquently standing up against the haters and emphasizing the morality and ethics of the IDF.  Respect!

Interview with Colonel Richard Kemp in Jerusalem (Tuvia Book)

 

I was honoured to meet and interview Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan. He is a great friend of the Jewish people and our state. He is also a passionate advocate for the IDF and is constantly and eloquently standing up against the haters and emphasizing the morality and ethics of the IDF. We salute you Colonel!

The Enigma of Colonel Richard Kemp CBE explained in his own Words

Divide Israel and Jerusalem? :: By Dennis Huebshman

https://www.raptureready.com/2020/02/23/divide-israel-and-jerusalem-by-dennis-huebshman/

Saying that “Palestinians” have a valid claim to any part of Israel is just wrong. There never has been a country called Palestine, and the people who say they are Palestinians are Arabs from surrounding nations. It goes back to Isaac and Ishmael in Abraham’s time. Prior to Israel’s return in 1948, the land the Israelites now occupy was desolate, dry and almost totally uninhabited. This was noted by Samuel Clements – aka Mark Twain – in the 1850’s. Isaac was God’s chosen; Ishmael was the son of the slave woman. (any emphasis is mine)

 

The land that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12 is theirs forever, and the city where David and Solomon reigned as kings, and the location where the House of God – The Temple – was built, is Jerusalem. The land that God originally gave to Abraham to be his and his descendants was described in Genesis 15:18 and 17:8. “On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt [Nile?] to the Great River; the river Euphrates.’ (17:8) And I will give to you and your offspring after you, the land of your sojourning’s; all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” This is the “Promised Land” the Bible tells us about.

By overlaying the original promised land onto a modern map, the southern border of that land went from about Cairo, Egypt, to Kuwait. It ran at the north from about the southern border of Turkey, and spreads out in a large triangle which covers Beirut, Lebanon, Damascus, Syria, and all the way to the outskirts of Baghdad in Iraq. Needless to say, modern Israel is only a fraction of that land, yet the Arabs wish to totally wipe them off the face of the earth. If Israel was down to just a few acres, that would still be too much for the Radical Palestinians.

Right from the start in May 1948, Israel had to defend itself from vicious attacks from surrounding nations. Looking at its present borders, this would be like New Jersey trying to fight off the rest of the United States, including Alaska. Greatly outnumbered, and with limited weaponry, Israel kept themselves from being annihilated; or rather the Lord God Jehovah did. Over the years, there have been several major attacks, yet Israel remains in place to this day, and presently has control over Jerusalem. Most of it, that is. It’s as the Bible said they would be just prior to the start of the Tribulation.

Looking at Amos 9:14-15, we see that God made a promise to the people of Israel. “I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their own wine; and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them; says the Lord your God.”

Any “I will” statement from the Father is a solid covenant, and if you look at the ‘shall’s,’ all has gone just as the Father said it would.

 

From the “wasteland” described by Samuel Clements, to modern-day Israel, the difference is impressive. The Lord has provided His people with the ability to change dry wasteland into fertile ground, where they grow grapes and many other produce crops to sustain themselves. In fact, they export a lot of produce to other nations, as well as quality wine from their vineyards. The issue facing the Jews today is, the majority do not accept Jesus as their Messiah. This is the reason there will be a 7-year tribulation/ wrath, so the Father can prove to them just who “Yeshua” is. At the end of this period, all Jews will know and accept Jesus as their Messiah.

 

In Ezekiel 38:4, God said He would put “hooks” into the jaws of a coalition that would rise up and attack Israel for their wealth. The main actors of this coalition are Russia, Turkey and Iran; along with some other smaller countries. For the first time in the history of this world, that coalition has formed, and the main participants are desperate to gain resources. All three of the major countries are financially strapped to the point of just about going under. Then, there sits tiny Israel, with enough wealth to cover them all. Remember, just recently Israel hit major natural gas and oil deposits, and they are exporting that which they don’t use to Europe. As far as wealth, they rank eighth in the world.

President Trump has shown Israel more honor than any previous president since 1948. Truman was the first to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation, but they pretty much fought off the invaders without any other country coming to their aid. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel, and acknowledged the Golan belongs to them. As expected, when the peace plan was revealed, the “Palestinians” totally rejected it. The plan gives them four years to implement the proposed changes. The tribulation plan is for 7 years.

With the present “plan for peace,” just outside Jerusalem would be given to the Arabs, or so-called “Palestinians.” While it does not include any major portion of Jerusalem, it does include a small edge of East Jerusalem. The Temple Mount would be under the total sovereignty of Israel, and taken away from Jordan. The Jews have always been willing to allow others to reside within her borders, and that even includes Arabs. The stipulation is that all who live there must do so peacefully.

Jerusalem, also known as “Zion,” is mentioned 660 times in the Old Testament, and 146 times in the New Testament. Zion is mentioned 158 times in the Old Testament, and 7 times in the New Testament. Zion is the Hebrew name for a hill just south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, upon which was built the City of David.

 

Jerusalem is where our Savior will rule and reign on this earth after He puts down the “rebellion,” better known as the Tribulation. He will be in the Temple and rule for one thousand years. This means a new Third Temple will be built. At the end of that period, Satan will be allowed one more limited evil action, and then he and all his followers will be in the Lake of Fire forever (Revelation 19:20; 20:10-15).

 

The old earth will be destroyed, and a new Jerusalem will come down to a new earth that will be created at the end of the millennial reign of the Savior. Jesus will rule forever from His throne in the New Holy City. This is fully described in Revelation 21 and 22.

 

There is a positive side to all this for all who truly believe in, and have received Jesus as their Savior already. Prophecy is being played out before our eyes, and the next major event on the prophecy calendar would be the Rapture, or taking up of Jesus’ Church to meet Him in the air. We won’t be here for the Wrath/Tribulation that is soon to come. To be assured you will not be here, call on Him today, and ask Him to save you. Romans 10:9-13 tells of this, and the call could come at any minute. To delay could mean missing this most important event.

One last note: Jesus’ “Church” has nothing to do with organized religion that we see today. In fact, many of the evangelical groups are turning away from the true word of the Bible just as was said by Jesus, Paul, John and others. False prophets have infiltrated many churches, and people are only too willing to follow their “feel-good” “ear-tickling” messages. After the Rapture takes place, many churches, including some “mega-churches,” will not see a decline in attendance. That’s not only sad, but pathetic.

 

Call on Jesus today, and truly tell Him you are sorry for your sins, and ask His forgiveness. This doesn’t mean you’ll never sin again, but the habitual sin should be worked out of your life. He will refuse no one who calls, and will not force any who won’t. It’s your choice, and the most important decision you’ll ever make. Choose wisely!

Maranatha (Come Lord Jesus)

Divide Israel and Jerusalem?

Jerusalem in History and Prophecy

A Background Study By Dr. David R. Reagan
https://christinprophecy.org/articles/jerusalem-3000/

 

On September 25th of 1995, a very special Jewish new year began. It was the year designated by the government of Israel as the 3,000th anniversary of the conquest of the city of Jerusalem by King David.

The City’s Significance

There is no other city on the face of the earth as important as the city of Jerusalem. All the other great cities of the earth — New York, London, Moscow, Paris, and even Rome — pale by comparison. What other city can claim to be “the city of God” or “the city of the Great King”? (Psalm 48).

God loves Jerusalem, and He intends to dwell in it eternally. Psalm 68:16 says that God has desired the mountain of Zion “for His abode” and that He intends to “dwell there forever.” Psalm 132:13-14 contains a similar promise: “The Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.'”

 

When you read these kinds of statements, you can understand why Jerusalem is identified in Ezekiel 5:5 as “the center of the nations” and in Ezekiel 38:12 as “the center of the world.”

Jerusalem is where the Son of God shed His precious blood. It is where Jesus ascended into Heaven. It is where Jesus will return to be crowned King of Kings. It is the city from which Jesus will reign over all the nations of the world.

And Jerusalem will be the scene of history’s last battle when Satan rallies the nations at the end of the Millennium and leads them in revolt against the Lord. Finally, Jerusalem is where God Himself will come to reside eternally with the Redeemed.

 

It is no wonder that Jerusalem has always been an important topic of Bible prophecy.

The City in History

But before we look at Jerusalem in prophecy, let’s briefly remind ourselves of its history.

 

The first mention of Jerusalem in the Bible is probably found in Genesis 14:18 where we are told that Abraham paid tithes to the King of Salem, Melchizedek. (This was about 2,000 years before the time of Jesus.) Although we cannot know for certain that this is a reference to Jerusalem, it seems likely because Abraham was in that geographical area, and the city’s name, Salem, is the root word of the city’s later name, Jerusalem.

 

Later, we are told that Abraham went to Mt. Moriah, just north of ancient Jerusalem, to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:2). That mountain was later incorporated into the city of Jerusalem during the time of Solomon, becoming the Temple Mount.

 

The first mention of the city by the name of Jerusalem is found in Joshua 10:1 where we are told that the city’s king, Adonai-zedek, led a coalition of kings against Joshua and was defeated in the famous battle in the Valley of Ayalon when the sun stood still. However, the city of Jerusalem must not have been taken at this time by the Israelites because after the death of Joshua, we are told in Judges 1:8 that “the sons of Judah” captured the city, “struck it with the edge of the sword, and set it on fire.”

 

But the Jebusites must have reclaimed it because it is later referred to in Judges 19:10 as the city of Jebus. And it was still in Jebusite hands two centuries later when David conquered it and made it the capital of the Jewish nation.

 

The story of the city’s capture by David and his forces is recorded in 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Chronicles 11. According to these passages, David reigned from Hebron for seven years while he served as king of Judah. But after he was crowned the king of both Judah and Israel, he decided to move his headquarters northward to a more central location.

 

The city he selected was Jebus, which was also known as “the stronghold of Zion” (2 Samuel 5:7). After he conquered it, the name was changed to Jerusalem, but it was often referred to as “the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:9). This occurred 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus — or some 3,000 years from where we stand now in human history.

 

Now, with this brief historical sketch as a backdrop, let’s take a look at the Bible prophecies that relate to Jerusalem.

Jewish Jerusalem

The first set of prophecies relating to Jerusalem are those that pertain to it as a Jewish capital before the time of Jesus. Keep in mind that the kingdom of David split into two nations after the death of his son Solomon.

 

The northern nation of Israel was totally apostate from the beginning. It was given over to idolatry and did not have one righteous king in its 200 year history. In sharp contrast, the southern nation of Judah was blessed with many righteous kings. It was also blessed with Jerusalem as its capital. And it was blessed even more by having the Shekinah glory of God residing in its Temple.

 

But despite all these blessings, the people of Judah became proud and began to drift in their relationship with God. As the nation began to turn its back on God, the Lord mercifully raised up prophets to warn them and call them to repentance. When they refused to repent, the prophets prophesied that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed and the nation would be taken into captivity.

 

The first of these prophecies was delivered by Micah in the 8th century BC — about 130 years before the city was actually destroyed. Micah spoke out against both political and religious corruption, saying, “Her [Judah’s] leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, Her priests instruct for a price, and her prophets divine for money” (Micah 3:11).

 

He lamented the fact that every time these leaders were called to repentance lest the city be destroyed, they always responded arrogantly by observing, “Is not the LORD in our midst? [A reference to the Shekinah in the Temple.] Calamity will not come upon us.” To which Micah replied: “Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest” (Micah 3:12).

One hundred years later Jeremiah also warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed (Jeremiah 7: 12-15). Speaking for the Lord, Jeremiah declared, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant” (Jeremiah 9:11).

When the people refused to believe his words and even sought to kill him as a traitor, Jeremiah reminded them of the previous prophecy of Micah (Jeremiah 26:18). But the people still refused to repent, and the prophecies were fulfilled in 587 BC when Nebuchadnezzer destroyed the city and its temple.

Consider one of the saddest statements in the Bible:

And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. — 2 Chronicles. 36:15-16

Gentile Jerusalem

After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, the Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt their temple and their city. But they refused to receive their Messiah, and so the Lord gave a second group of prophecies relating to a period of time when Jerusalem would fall under Gentile control.

Jesus Himself delivered these important prophecies during the last week of His life. As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives talking with His disciples, He pointed at Jerusalem and its temple and said: “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down” (Luke 21:6).

Later, in the same discourse, Jesus stated that the city would be surrounded by armies which would proceed to desolate it (Luke 21:20). Referring to the Jews in the city at that time, He said, “they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations…” (Luke 21:24a).

These prophecies were fulfilled 40 years later when the Romans, under Titus, completely destroyed the city, including the Temple.

But notice, Jesus made another prophecy about the city in the same speech: He said, “Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21: 24b). The Romans were followed by the Byzantines, and they were succeeded, in order, by the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes, the Turks, the British, and the Jordanians.

Just as Jesus prophesied, the city suffered under a long period of Gentile control until June 7, 1967 when — for the first time in 1,897 years — the Jews regained sovereignty over the city. It was on that day that Rabbi Shlomo Goren went to the Western Wall and cried out: “I proclaim to you the beginning of the Messianic Age.”

The third group of prophecies about the city explain why he said these words.

End Time Jerusalem

Four hundred years before Jesus, the prophet Zechariah gave a remarkable series of prophecies about the events that would affect Jerusalem in the end times, right before what we call the Second Coming of the Messiah. These prophecies are recorded in Zechariah 12:1-6. Specifically, the prophecies are as follows:

  • The Jews will be back in the land of Israel.

  • The Jews will be back in the city of Jerusalem.

  • The Israeli army will be like a “firepot among pieces of wood.”

  • Jerusalem will become the focal point of world politics.

  • All the nations of the world will come together against Jerusalem.

 

Please note that these are prophecies that have been fulfilled! The Jew is back in his land and his city. Despite the minuscule size of the nation, its military forces are considered to be among the most powerful in the world. They have truly been like a “flaming torch among sheaves” in war after war.

 

Israel became the focal point of world politics in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. When the West came to the aid of Israel, the Arabs pulled an oil boycott (remember those long gas lines?), bringing the Western nations to their knees. The result was that all the nations of Western Europe withdrew their support from Israel and either took a neutral position or else lined up with the Arabs in their determination to annihilate the Jewish state.

 

Concerning the last prophecy cited above, in just the past few years, all the nations of the world, including the United States, have come against Israel, forcing her into a suicidal appeasement policy of trading land for peace.

 

Zechariah lists some other end time prophecies regarding Jerusalem that have not yet been fulfilled. These exciting prophecies are contained in Zechariah 12:8-10. They state that the Lord will defend Jerusalem against its enemies and that the result of all the end time battles will be the repentance of a great remnant of the Jews “who will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). In response, the Lord will save this remnant by opening a fountain of salvation in Jerusalem “for sin and for impurity” (Zechariah 13:1).

 

In chapter 14, Zechariah describes in detail how the Lord will rescue Jerusalem at the last moment when there appears to be no hope: “then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle” (Zechariah 14:3). He will speak a supernatural plague that will kill all the enemy soldiers in their tracks (Zechariah 14:12). Verse 9 tells us that the outcome of this momentous day will be the coronation of Jesus as “king over all the earth.”

 

This wonderful promise introduces us to the fourth category of prophecies that relate to Jerusalem.

Millennial Jerusalem

A glorious day is coming for Jerusalem, for when the Lord returns, He is going to reign over all the world for a thousand years, and His reign of peace, righteousness and justice will be based in Jerusalem: “For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3 and Micah 4:2).

Jerusalem will be the political, economic and religious center of the world (Micah 4:1-7).

The city will be very different from the one we know today. The great worldwide earthquake that will occur when Jesus returns will radically change the earth’s topography, including that of Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:4Revelation 6:12 and Revelation 16:18). The Bible indicates that Jerusalem will be greatly expanded in area and will be lifted up higher, perhaps becoming the highest point on the earth (Zechariah 14:10).

The city will be considerably enlarged and greatly beautified, and the most magnificent temple in history will be built in the midst of it under the personal supervision of the Messiah. That temple is described in detail in chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel.

The glory of Jerusalem in those days is best summarized in Isaiah 62:1-7 where we are told that the city will be “a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord” (verse 3). The prophet also says the city will be “a praise in the earth” (verse 7). For the first time in its long bloody history, it will be a refuge of peace (Joel 3:16-17 and Zephaniah 3:14-20).

It will also be the greatest wonder on the earth. Think about it — it will house the Prince of Peace and will contain His temple. It will also serve once more as the home of God’s spectacular Shekinah glory. But that glory will not be contained within the Holy of Holies. Incredibly, Isaiah says that the Shekinah will hover over the whole city of Jerusalem as a cloud by day and a fire by night, providing a canopy to protect the city from heat and rain (Isaiah 4:5-6).

Zechariah says the nations of the world will send delegations to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. And the last verse of Ezekiel says that in that day the name of the city will be changed from Yerushalyim to Yahweh-Shemmah, meaning “The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35).

 

Eternal Jerusalem

Finally, the prophets tell us that the millennial Jerusalem will be replaced by a new Jerusalem which Jesus is preparing in Heaven now.

 

At the end of the Millennium, after the earth has been renovated by fire, the new Jerusalem will be lowered down to the new earth, and the Redeemed, in their new glorified bodies, will live in this new city in the presence of Almighty God, who will come down from Heaven to live forever with His children (Revelation 21:1-3). This very clear teaching from the book of Revelation comes as a shock to a lot of Christians who have always been taught that they will live eternally in an ethereal world called Heaven.

What an amazing city this new Jerusalem will be! The Apostle John devotes 24 verses to its detailed description in Revelation 21 and 22. It will be a 1,500 mile cube with 12 foundations made of precious stones — each one named for one of the 12 apostles. Likewise, there will be 12 pearly gates, one named for each tribe of Israel. The walls will be made of jasper. The city itself will be pure gold, like clear glass.

Have you ever stopped to think about the shape and size of this phenomenal city? For example, why will it be 1,500 miles high? The reason, of course, is that in our glorified bodies, we will be immune to the laws of gravity. We will thus be able to utilize all the space of the city, and not just the ground floor.

And how much space will we have? Will there be enough for all the Redeemed? Henry Morris, founder of the Institute for Creation Research, has calculated the space that would exist for each person, assuming that at least 50% of the area would be used for common purposes (streets, parks, recreation centers, etc.) and assuming that 20 billion people have been saved in the course of human history. The result is astounding: each person would have a cube with 75 acres on each surface! That’s certainly more space than most of us have now.

But the best part of this city will not be its beauty or its spaciousness. The best part will be the personal presence of Jesus our Lord and Almighty God, the Father. Revelation 22 says we will eternally serve God in this city and that we will “see His face.” I think that means we will have intimate, personal fellowship with our Creator eternally. And that causes me to stand in awe.

The Message for Us

What does all this mean for you and me? Does it have any relevance to Gentile Christians today? The answer is that it certainly does.

 

First, it means that God is faithful. Just as He has fulfilled prophecies about Jerusalem in the past and is doing so now, we can be confident that He will continue to do so in the future. There is going to be a millennial Jerusalem and there is going to be an eternal one, and we, the Redeemed, are going to be richly blessed by both — beyond anything we can imagine.

Second, the record of Jerusalem in prophecy means that God is sovereign. He is in control. Even when everything seems to be out of control here on earth, we can be assured that God has the wisdom and power to orchestrate all the evil of Mankind to the triumph of His will in history.

Third, God is calling you and me to live with an eternal perspective. In Hebrews 11 we are told that Abraham lived by faith as “an alien” in this world, “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). Isn’t that interesting? Abraham did not consider his arrival in the Promised Land to be the fulfillment of God’s promises to him. Rather, he lived yearning for his ultimate reward, namely, life with God in an eternal city — the new Jerusalem.

In Hebrews 11:13 it says that all the heroes of the faith who are listed in that chapter lived their lives as “strangers and exiles on the earth” because they desired the city which God had prepared for them. The book of Hebrews concludes with a reminder to us that in this world we do not have a lasting city. Instead, we are to seek “the city which is to come.”

Jesus is adding rooms to that city right now to accommodate the members of His body (John 14:1-4). Let us therefore live as aliens and strangers in this world, never becoming comfortable with it. Let us live looking for the coming of the Lord (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

And let us live praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), realizing that in doing so we are really praying for the return of the Lord, for Jerusalem will never experience true peace until the Prince of Peace returns.

Jerusalem in History and Prophecy
Who Does Jerusalem Belong To

Jerusalem - A Cup of Trembling

Prophecy Update Videos

"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it... Zechariah 12:2-3

 

Jerusalem: A Cup of Trembling covers and explores the following topics, THE BATTLE FOR JERUSALEM, HISTORY OF JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM THE PRIZE OF WAR, JERUSALEM THE MYTH, WHO OWNS JERUSALEM?, DIVIDING THE INDIVISIBLE, WESTERN INTERFERENCE, THE PEACEMAKER and many more.

Jerusalem - A Cup of Trembling

Hope for Our Times w/ Israel Consul General Dr. Hillel Newman

Who Does Jerusalem Belong To?

 

Despite all logic and Biblical proof, the world remains divided on who Israel – and specifically Jerusalem – belongs to.  And through Satanic leading, many people are siding against the Jews. In fact, on December 21, 2017, the United Nations united as one to stand against one city on the planet: Jerusalem. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel. A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the measure, nine voted against it and 35 countries abstained.

  • The vote confirms international hostility towards a Jewish Jerusalem

  • The vote reminds us that the biblical authors were inspired when predicting that an end-time coalition of nations would come against a Jewish Jerusalem

  • The vote tells us that, just as Scripture indicates, the city of Jerusalem is the whole world's business

 

The entire world is attempting to divide God's covenant land Israel in half (via the “Two-State Solution”). This division of land is supported by all major nations and the United Nations itself – literally, all the nations are attempting to sever Israel from Judah, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights. Amazingly, the Bible takes this prophecy a step further and indicates that the "boundary stone" the nations try to move will include Jerusalem.

Zechariah 12:1-3 – The Coming Deliverance of Judah

Zec 12:1 The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. 

  • This “Two-State Solution” is the event that the Bible describes as the catalyst for God's coming judgement on all the nations. Even Pope Francis used part of his 2017 Christmas message to the world as a call for a "two-state" solution regarding Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Zechariah 14:1-3 – The Day of the Lord

Zec 14:1 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

3 Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.

A New US Assistant Secretary of State with Ties to Hamas…What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

https://www.newantisemitism.com/antisemitism/a-new-us-assistant-secretary-of-state-with-ties-to-hamas-what-could-possibly-go-wrong

The Arab-Israeli conflict was not born yesterday. Although hope appeared during the last US administration, this conflict will most likely continue for the foreseeable future. Without positioning ourselves anywhere on the political spectrum, it is not difficult to notice the progress that was made during the Trump administration. Again, this is not meant to be an apology for Donald Trump’s policies, but simply an acknowledgment of some of his accomplishments regarding the Middle East. Many previous presidents spoke of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (the historical and biblical capital of Israel), only Trump did it. He defunded the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency and received a lot of criticism, but it turned out he was right. After a year-long investigation, his administration decided that the settlements in the West Bank were not illegal and started to describe the area as Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank or the “Occupied Territories”. Then you have the Abraham Accords that historically paved the way for normalization between Israel and some of her Arab neighbors (UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan).  Seemingly, more would have followed suit; but we are now under a new administration.

To be sure, President Trump openly declared his love for Israel and the Jewish people, so none of this should come as a surprise to anyone; but many before him also spoke great words about the Jewish State and the right to the Land, and yet, accomplished little. We could say that even the friendliest previous administrations settled for some sort of status quo regarding Israel and the Middle East. I am reminded of the foundational passage of Scripture found in Genesis 12:1-3, where God promises to Abram (later to become Abraham) great blessings, a specific piece of land and a myriad of descendants as numerous as the stars. In that passage, in what could be called “God’s foreign policy as it pertains to Israel”, we read: “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.” It might be helpful to notice that God didn’t give mankind three choices as to how they interact with Israel and the Jewish people. We either bless or we curse. Nowhere in the Bible are we ever told that we can remain uninvolved or indifferent when it comes to the Jewish people. We either bless or we curse. There is no sitting on the fence out of ignorance, or even worse…by choice!

 

Unfortunately, it can get more destructive. Apathy is never a good move, but hypocrisy is much worse. We now are under a new administration claiming that the safety of Israel is a priority, but is it really?

 

For starters, the current administration wants to reset the US-Palestinian relations. In a recent memo, it was stated, “the Biden administration will seek to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees”.  So, it looks like we are back to the pre-1967 borders agenda. This would bring Israel’s borders back to the 1949 armistice lines and make the country extremely vulnerable to attacks on several points; not to mention that it would reduce the area given by God to the Jewish people in Genesis 15:18-21 even further. Additionally, radical Islamists, Hamas and other enemies of Israel have clearly indicated that the pre-1967 borders are still not enough. These borders would only lead to further attacks and invasions by the Palestinians.

Even though the current US administration vows that they seek Israel’s safety, they have shown no interest in dealing with the Middle East as a priority and have made Hady Amr the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs.  He is the highest US ranking official for Middle East affairs, but the question is, “Does he have the credentials for such a task?”

Hady Amr is a practicing Muslim: This isn’t an issue in and of itself, as freedom of religion is part of our constitution (rightfully so), but might not be the best choice for the person officially representing the US government in the Middle East.

Hady Amr wrote that He was inspired by the Palestinian Intifada: The Intifada (meaning “uprising”), was organized unrest from Palestinians against Israel, based on the false premise that Israel is an occupier and colonizer and trying to push Palestinians out of their own ancestral land. There is no archeological, geographical or historical basis for such a claim.

Hady Amr has repeatedly called for dealing with Hamas: Hamas is a terrorist organization with a charter calling for the complete destruction of Israel.

Hady Amr has been instrumental in resuming US funding to the PA: One of the first items on his agenda has been to restore US funding to the Palestinian authority. US taxpayers are now forced to fund terrorism again.

Hady Amr has strong ties to Qatar: He lived and worked there for years, establishing a branch of the Brookings Institute. Qatar is notorious for funding terrorism and supporting Hamas and having ties with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Hady Amr has accused Israel of murdering innocent children: He wrote:  “Arabs will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents.”

Hady Amr has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing: He continues to promote the false narrative that Israel has taken over Palestinian land and committed ethnic cleansing, when in fact, there are more Arabs in Israel today than there were prior to 1948.

 

I can definitely see credentials in that list, but I am not sure they are the credentials needed for an unbiased approach to the Middle East crisis. It looks to me like the current administration is determined to undo all that the previous administration achieved. President Trump will be remembered as the single American President who did the most for Israel and the Jewish people. He was Genesis 12:3 in action on many fronts. He blessed Israel!

While it is still too early to know all that President Biden will do in the Middle East, by gathering a team of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian staff members, one can only imagine what the future might hold in terms of Arab-Israeli conflict resolution.

There are things to consider when the US appoints a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs:

• Consider the weight of the 1917 Balfour Declaration: The very brief letter written by Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild set the international stage for the birth of modern Israel. It read as follows:  “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

• The San Remo Conference validated the Balfour Declaration: After World War II, allied forces met in San Remo, Italy, to divide land conquered in the Middle East. They decided to include the decision made in the Balfour Declaration in their statement as follows:  “The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22, the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory, to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

• The League of Nations included the Balfour Declaration in their 1922 mandate for Palestine: While Great Britain didn’t have the right to intervene in the future borders of Israel, the Balfour Declaration gained credence when the League of Nations incorporated it in their mandate for Palestine in 1922.

• The United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine in 1947: Fifty years after Theodor Herzl spoke of it in 1897, the ancestral land for the Jewish people was reborn as a modern nation. The signatories included President Harry Truman who was a close friend of Chaim Weizmann (Israel’s first President).

• The Bible makes the best case for the existence of Israel: While this should be the topic of another article, the Bible is replete with passages promoting and defending the Land of Israel as belonging to the Jewish people by divine decree (Genesis 12:1-315:18-21Isaiah 14:127:1343:5-760:21; Ezekiel 37; Jeremiah 31:35-37Hebrews 11:8-9.) The biblical case for the land is very strong

• Modern Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East: Contrary to the false narrative being pushed by academia, the media and the current US administration, modern Israel is a haven of peace for Arabs in the public sector, private sector and is represented in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).

All we need is some balance in the way our new administration interacts with Israel and Palestine. I don’t see any of that coming from the man who doesn’t have a problem dealing with Hamas and even looking to make a deal with them. I still rest in the fact that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is on our side; and He is definitely a Zionist in the purest sense of the term!

New US Asst Sec of Stae

A Rabbi, a Preacher, and a Palestinian sit down to discuss to whom God promised Israel...

It may sound like the start of a joke, but the dialog in this conversation is very serious. The news and social media have done it again, sowing doubt and speculation over who's to blame for the violence in Israel. Is the IDF persecuting the Palestinian people? Are the Palestinian's to blame for the rocket attacks? Is the violence caused by Hamas being handled proportionately? All these factors are polarizing and have since caused a new rash of Antisemitism here in the US. Join us as we discuss the biblical context of the nation of Israel, and to whom God gave the land.

Panel:

Robert Tyler - President & General Counsel of Advocates for Faith & Freedom
Nada Higuera - Lawyer at Advocates for Faith & Freedom
Pastor Tom Hughes - Lead Pastor at Church 4|12
Rabbi Michael Barclay - Rabbi at Temple Ner Simcha

Crisis in the Holy Land Discussion

Will There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

Will There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?
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