2023 Mar-April Zion's Fire Magazine

A Word of Introduction

David

Editor-in-Chief

The 75th Anniversary of Israel’s rebirth is a momentous event that truly warrants special attention. The long, epic journey of the Jewish people through biblical history, through their 2000-year dispersion across the globe, and through the 75 years since their national rebirth in 1948, is not only remarkable – it’s miraculous!

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The articles in this expanded issue of Zion’s Fire were penned by my late father, Marvin Rosenthal, and first appeared in Zion’s Fire a decade ago in conjunction with Israel’s 65th Anniversary. That issue was one of our most requested – and has been out of print for the past 10 years.

As a collection, these articles not only provide an informative and riveting narrative of God’s preservation of His Chosen People through centuries of relentless persecution –they also reveal His ultimate plan to bring eternal blessing to the world through them.

As we celebrate Israel’s 75th Anniversary, I believe you’ll find these articles to be timely and powerful – even more so today than a decade ago. With minimal editing, and with the edition of some important new updates, our editorial staff is pleased to present to you this very special, expanded issue of Zion’s Fire –Israel: 75 Years of Searching for Peace.

Zion’s Fire Magazine

Zion’s Fire is a publication of Zion’s Hope.

© Copyright 2023 by Zion’s Hope, Inc., P.O. Box 783369 Winter Garden, FL 34778-3369

Production staff

Editor-in-Chief: David Rosenthal

Graphic Design: Catherine LeMand Michael Feland Cheryl Philips

Copy Editors: Marbeth Rosenthal Michael Ufferman David Ettinger

INTRODUCTION WHO’S NEXT?

As modern Israel celebrates her 75th birthday, we are reminded of the pagan empires who have sought her destruction and failed. Who will Israel’s next enemy be?

COVER FEATURE FROM THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR TO THE HEIGHTS OF EXULTATION

Jesus’ disciples were distraught at His death but rejoiced at His resurrection. Currently, the nation of Israel lives in denial of the risen Christ, but one day will confess Him.

INSIGHT FEATURE HOW DARK THE NIGHT

The history of Israel is that of a people fighting for their very existence –in and out of the land. However, God has confounded Satan’s attempts, instead using each one of them to bring the Jewish people back to their homeland.

12 INSIGHT FEATURE CAN THESE BONES LIVE?

Out of their land for almost 2,000 years, the Lord began calling the children of Abraham back to Israel. Several unlikely events led to this momentous occurrence, and the once-dried bones miraculously took on flesh and blood.

18 INSIGHT FEATURE A NATION REBORN

In 1948, Israel took its place among the nations of the world. Peace, however, has alluded the Jewish people as frequent warfare initiated by their hostile neighbors has kept the tiny country fighting for survival.

24 INSIGHT FEATURE THE PEACE BEFORE THE STORM

Israel’s modern history has been marked by warfare and confrontation. Soon, she will make a covenant with a world ruler who will guarantee her peace. This peace, however, will be but the prelude to near-destruction.

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Zion’s Hope is a Bible-based ministry whose purpose is to proclaim to Jewish and Gentile people throughout the world their need for personal salvation through Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. We’re also committed to helping Christians grow in their understanding of biblical prophecy and the importance of Israel in God’s plan for the Last Days. To that end, we teach Scripture in its historical, geographical, and cultural context to prepare God’s people for end-time events and the return of Jesus Christ.

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Rosenthal

Marvin Rosenthal 1935-2022

INTRODUCTION:

WHO’S Next ?

Egypt. Assyria. Babylon. Persia. Greece. Rome. The Ottoman Turks. The Nazis.

Who’s next?

All these empires and governments have been haters of the Jewish people. Their hatred has been blind and unjustified, and those who embrace goodness and justice detest such blind, seething hatred. And yet, like a bad dream, this hatred never goes away; in fact, it becomes increasingly pronounced, increasingly “perfected.” More than 3,500 years ago, Pharaoh of Egypt enslaved the Jewish people. Later, God said to His servant Moses: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,… And I am come down to deliver them” (Exodus 3:7, 8).

Sadly, history has repeated itself time and again. In every age, “pharaohs” have arisen to persecute the Jewish people, and God has come down to deliver His people. The long line of ancient oppressors includes the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks. Each of these empires wanted a piece of the action and rose up to oppose, persecute, imprison, murder, and plunder the Jewish people – the descendants of Abraham through Jacob.

On this side of Calvary – increasingly known as the “common era” – Rome, the “Christian” crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, and the Holocaust are

representative of the continuous and relentless persecution of the Jewish people.

May 2023 marks the anniversary of the Jewish people being back in their land for 75 years after more than nineteen centuries of wandering. Since 1948, Israel has had to defend herself numerous times from attack, six of these episodes escalating to war.

At first, the nations of the world –conscience-stricken because of the atrocities of World War II – were sympathetic to the modern state of Israel. Sympathy eventually turned into admiration as the Israelis courageously fought for survival in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021. However, it was following the 1973 conflict – known as the “Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] War” – that the tide of public opinion began turning against Israel. In was in 1973 (and later 1974) that a major energy crisis in the United States began to direct the attention of the public to the Middle East. Oil was scarce in those days, and gasoline prices were soaring. Long lines at gas stations were fraying American tempers, and people – automobile owners – were not a happy lot. With the spotlight focused on Middle East oil, support for Israel rapidly and almost universally began to deteriorate. Only the United States, among the major powers, continued to actively support Israel.

AS MODERN ISRAEL CELEBRATES HER 75TH BIRTHDAY, WE ARE REMINDED OF THE PAGAN EMPIRES WHO HAVE SOUGHT HER DESTRUCTION AND FAILED. WHO WILL ISRAEL’S NEXT ENEMY BE?

Sadly, history has repeated itself time and again. In every age, “pharaohs” have arisen to persecute the Jewish people, and God has come down to deliver His people.

Ugly Prejudice

Concurrent with the overall global loss of support for Israel, blatant anti-Semitism again began to raise its ugly head. Of course it had always been there; but the energy crisis had given it cause to become much more conspicuous. Historians and social scientists at the time were hard-pressed to explain this sudden rearing of anti-Semitism. Many have blamed it on Israel’s “unique” religion; others on the sometimes-abrasive nature of individual Jewish people; and some on their seemingly disproportionate wealth and influence.

How wrong! How utterly and completely wrong! The sewer of hatred of the Jewish people can be directly traced to Satan’s attempt to frustrate and defeat the plan and program of God for world redemption (for a further examination of this, read the article, “How Dark the Night” in this issue). The declaration Jesus made can never be muted: “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).

In His sovereignty, God chose Israel to be the instrument for universal blessing. It was through the Jewish people that the MessiahRedeemer was to come into the world. His first appearance, as the Lamb of God, was for the express purpose of dying for the sins of the world. His second appearance, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, will have among its goals the recapturing of humanity’s lost destiny as ruler of the earth, and the permanent defeat of Satan. Both appearances required and still require the existence of the Jewish people – thus Satan’s long and continuing battle against God’s elect nation.

answering the question

The title of this article is “Who’s Next?” It’s a provocative question. Every nation which has turned against Israel has experienced the wrath of God. For 75 years, the United States has supported Israel in part because of the Jewish influence in this nation, but more fundamentally because our foreign policy and Israel’s welfare have coincided.

However, things are changing rapidly. Our government is no longer as supportive of Israel as it once was. An anti-Israel sentiment is

growing as the news media unfairly makes Israel out to be the “heavy” in her ongoing hostilities with the Palestinians. Furthermore, the Internet has allowed for the “airing” of vile, nasty, and brazen anti-Semitic castigations against Israel and the Jewish people. Also, as America’s financial and moral condition continues to worsen, pressure is being brought upon America to change its pro-Israel position. Many believe expediency supersedes morality.

If America’s economy continues to weaken; if inflation continues to rise; if we experience a major terrorist attack; if unemployment continues to increase; if lawlessness continues to go unchecked; if medical costs rise while service deteriorates; if food shortages continue to increase; then the people of the United States will look for a scapegoat. As has been the case throughout world history, this scapegoat will be the Jewish people. If anti-Semitism in this nation – something that has always existed “beneath the surface” – comes to the forefront in ugly and violent ways, then you should not be surprised to see the approximately 7.7 million Jews living in America embark upon a mass “exodus” back to Israel. If you don’t think the above picture can occur, perhaps it is because you are not familiar with history or the unregenerate heart.

What will become of the United States if this scenario comes to fruition? If this happens, America – as every nation before her –will feel the angry wrath of God in judgment, and in the end, the very end, Israel will stand looking down into the graves of those who persecuted her through the centuries. Will America be among them? A popular Israeli saying goes like this: AM YISRAEL CHAI –“The people of Israel live!” It cannot be otherwise, for an unchangeable God has decreed it.

In the pages ahead, you will find a series of articles designed to give you an overview of Israel, past and present. Hopefully, this information will give you special insight into the history of the people God so loves.

And now, as Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary as a “reborn” nation, we proclaim: “Happy Anniversary, nation beloved by God, and may He increase your days!”

For 75 years, the United States has supported Israel ... things are changing rapidly.

Our government is no longer as supportive of Israel as it once was. An antiIsrael sentiment is growing ...

... if this happens, America – as every nation before her – will feel the angry wrath of God in judgment, and in the end, the very end, Israel will stand looking down into the graves of those who persecuted her through the centuries. Will America be among them?

To The

From The DepThs oFDespaIr heIghTs oF

Exultation

With the death of Jesus, the hopes, dreams, longings, and aspirations of the Apostles came to a screeching halt. They had forsaken everything and followed Him for three years. They walked with Him, talked with Him, ate with Him, slept with Him, and were taught by Him. They were convinced He was going to lead them in revolt against the despised Romans. The Romans were oppressive. They ridiculed the religion of the Jews. They taxed the Jewish people excessively. They ruled ruthlessly. Practically, every red-blooded Israelite hated the Romans with a passion.

Israel’s True KIng

Jesus, as the Son of David, was born King of the Jews – He had a legal right to rule over Israel. The Jewish Scriptures told of a Deliverer who would appear to break the yoke of Gentile oppression (Ezekiel 34:27). It was not without reason, therefore, that the disciples viewed Jesus as their coming King. Peter inquired: “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore [when You enter into Your kingdom]?” (Matthew 19:27). And the mother of James and John, zealous for her sons, requested, “Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom” (Matthew 20:21). And two blind beggars, hearing of Jesus’ presence as He was leaving Jericho, cried out, “Have

mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David [implying, King]” (Matthew 20:30).

As “kingdom fever” was mounting on the part of the disciples, they made their way to the top of the Mount of Olives. It was springtime and approaching the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan and the Passover. Historians suggest that as many as a million Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem that year from all over the known world to observe the sacred holiday. Here, then, was the needed manpower to lead in a rebellion against the despised Romans.

From the top of the Mount of Olives, Jesus and His disciples looked across the Kidron Valley to the glistening city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. They could see the massive wall stretching around the city, designed to keep out intruders. The sun was reflecting off of the beautiful stones and precious metals which adorned the Temple. The latter rains had ended, and the pleasant April weather had carpeted the rolling hills with green grass and multicolored wild flowers. The priests could be seen preparing for the onslaught of great crowds with their Passover lambs. The sights, the sounds, the smells all served to electrify that moment. And, in the midst of that atmosphere, Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Go and get the donkey.” These were Jewish disciples. They knew their Scriptures. They were familiar with the prophecy of Zechariah, “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee:… lowly, and riding upon

THE ROMANS WERE OPPRESSIVE. THE APOSTLES, AT FIRST, VIEWED JESUS AS THEIR COMING KING WHO WOULD LEAD THEM IN REVOLT AGAINST THE OPPRESSIVE ROMANS.

Jesus, as the Son of David, was born King of the Jews – He had a legal right to rule over Israel. The Jewish Scriptures told of a Deliverer who would appear to break the yoke of Gentile oppression (Ezekiel 34:27).

an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). Had you been there, you doubtless would have seen disciples who were excited and confused – excited at the prospect that “thy King cometh unto thee”; confused because He came on a donkey rather than on a great white horse.

They placed Jesus upon that animal. He started down the Mount of Olives, crossed through the narrow Kidron Valley, climbed the slope of Mount Moriah on the other side, and entered the city through the Golden Gate. Before Him stood the Temple in all of its splendor.

And during the processional, the multitude cut down palm branches, placed them before Him, and cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matthew 21:9). Hosanna literally means “deliver now” or “save now.” They were quoting directly from Psalm 118:25. They were not asking Him to save them from the curse of their sins. At that moment, they had no concept of His death, burial, and resurrection; that would come later. They were asking Him to deliver them from the oppressive heel of the hated Romans. After all, His credentials were impeccable. His genealogy could be checked. He was a direct descendant of King David and had a legal right to the throne.

But everything appeared to be going awry, and some from within the fickle multitude who cried out “Hosanna” to the Son of David on one day would cry out “Crucify Him” the next day.

Within hours, His life was torturously ebbing away by suffocation as He hung between Heaven and Earth on a Roman cross, increasingly unable to pull Himself up to fill His lungs with air. The irony of that scene can never be fully comprehended or exhausted. Jesus was not dead because He fell off a Judean hill. They weren’t mourning because He was trampled by a runaway chariot and horses. He hadn’t been set upon by thugs. No, He had been crucified on a Roman cross – by the very same people against whom the disciples thought He was going to lead them in rebellion. This One, whom they thought was to be their King, died like a common criminal at the hands of their enemies. From human reckoning, how inglorious!

With the death of Jesus, the disciples sank to the depths of defeat, despondency, and de-

spair. They were sure it was He who would lead them against Rome. But let them speak for themselves: “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed [delivered] Israel” (Luke 24:21) – and now He’s dead!

glorIous TrIumph

Low in the grave He lay – and the disciples thought that was the end, their hopes thrust through at the place called Calvary, their dreams unfulfilled, their aspirations unsatisfied. But, on the third day – on the third day –He rose from the grave and began to appear to His followers. He was alive – vitally, dynamically alive! Twenty-first century humanity, so far removed from that scene, can never fully comprehend the depths of despair to which the disciples had fallen at His death, nor the heights of exultation to which they were catapulted at His resurrection.

And now the resurrected, never-to-dieagain Lord ministered to them for forty days. Before leaving, He gave to those who belong to Him a final command:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

That command has never been annulled –it has never been rescinded – it has never been negated – it has never been abrogated. It comes down the corridor of time as authoritative today as it was the moment it was first given. His last command should be the Church’s first concern. God had promised Abraham 2,000 years earlier that in his Seed all of the nations would be blessed. Who, among the wisest sages of mankind, could ever have thought that through the chosen nation’s rejection of her Messiah and His resultant death at Calvary and the institution of the New Covenant, the blessing of the glorious Gospel would flow freely to all peoples?

However, as a direct consequence of Israel’s rejection of her Messiah, within less than forty years, the Temple on Mount Moriah would be destroyed and the Jewish people would begin their long, lonely, torturous walk across the centuries.

Despair to Exultation

GOD HAD PROMISED ABRAHAM 2,000 YEARS EARLIER THAT IN HIS SEED ALL OF THE NATIONS WOULD BE BLESSED.

AS A CONSEQUENCE OF ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF HER MESSIAH, THE JEWISH PEOPLE WOULD BEGIN THEIR LONG, LONELY, TORTUROUS WALK ACROSS THE CENTURIES.

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, THE AMORITES, EGYPTIANS, AMALEKITES, ASSYRIANS, PHOENICIANS, PHILISTINES, BABYLONIANS, PERSIANS, AND MACEDONIANS WERE AMONG THE MANY NATIONS WHO ROSE UP TO PLUNDER AND HARASS THE CHILDREN OF JACOB.

WATCH VIDEO How Dark the Night: A History of Jewish Persecution

Anti-Semitism” is an ugly word. Just men and women have always abhorred it. But, like a bad dream, it refuses to go away.

Historians, social scientists, philosophers, theologians – all are hard-pressed to explain this phenomenon which is as ancient as Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, and as contemporary as the state of Israel in the early twenty-first century.

In the Old Testament, the Amorites, Egyptians, Amalekites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Philistines, Babylonians, Persians, and Macedonians were among the many nations who rose up to plunder and harass the children of Jacob. In turn, each of these nations experienced the chastening hand of God and, with few exceptions, the nations of antiquity who persecuted the Jewish people are no more.

Hold your phone in camera mode over the QR code. Click the link that appears on the screen to view video.

No race, no religion, no nation, no ethnic group has experienced the continuous, almost relentless persecution the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have known.

For some, that they existed at all is often only known through the Bible, a few ancient manuscripts, or the archaeologist’s spade.

Following the death of Christ, anti-Semitism not only continued but intensified.

Among Israel’s antagonists were Roman soldiers, Islamic zealots, “Christian” Crusaders, Spanish Inquisitors, Russian Cossacks, Nazi S.S. troops and, in recent years, Palestinian terrorists.

No race, no religion, no nation, no ethnic group has experienced the continuous, almost relentless persecution the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have known. Clearly, one of the great marvels of human history is the continued existence of the Jewish race.

One of the great marvels of human history is the continued existence of the Jewish race.

God Himself gave the formula for destroying the Jew. He said, in effect, if humanity could destroy the sun, moon, and stars – then, and only then, could they destroy Israel. But as long as those heavenly bodies were in the sky, Israel would continue to exist as a nation (Jeremiah 31:31-40).

God Himself gave the formula for destroying the Jew. He said, in effect, if humanity could destroy the sun, moon, and stars – then, and only then, could they destroy Israel. But as long as those heavenly bodies were in the sky, Israel would continue to exist as a nation (Jeremiah 31:31-40). Here is compelling evidence to those with an open and honest mind of the existence of God and His faithfulness to His Word.

The universal dispersion of the Jewish people, with its attendant persecution, was prophesied by Moses almost 1,500 years before it came to pass. He wrote:

And the L ord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life (Deuteronomy 28:64-66).

After the death of Christ, the hostility between the Jews and imperial Rome continued to fester for some thirty years. At that time, the Roman governor, for some unknown reason, chose to loot the Temple on Mount Moriah and interfere with Jewish worship –something meticulously avoided by Rome until that time. More than 200 years earlier, in 165 B.C., the Jews had successfully revolted against the Greeks who had desecrated their Temple. Now they would try to revolt against the Romans. In response, Rome sent her powerful legions under the command of General Titus, son of the emperor. The Jews took refuge behind the strong walls of the city of Jerusalem. The Romans countered by building a barrier outside the city walls so that supplies could not get in, and people could not get out. The standoff continued until different factions among the defenders began to fight among themselves.

A DisperseD people

Tragically, in A.D. 70, the city of Jerusalem fell to the invading army. The Temple was destroyed, the priesthood ended, the sacrificial system terminated; and precisely as the Lord Jesus had predicted, not one stone was left upon another by the time the Roman legions were finished (Matthew 24:2). Thousands of Jews were crucified, others were sold as slaves, or dragged off to be exhibited and ridiculed, or torn to pieces in Roman arenas. Those who could flee did so across the desert. Some went east toward Babylon; others went southward toward Egypt and North Africa. Still others chose to sail to the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The worldwide Diaspora (Greek for “dispersion” or “scattering”) of the Jews had begun.

A remnant of Jews, however, stayed behind, preferring to bow to Rome rather than face the uncertainties and hardships of dispersion. Sixty-five years later, in A.D. 135, these remaining Jews would seek to throw off the yoke of Roman oppression one more time. It was on this occasion that the highly esteemed Rabbi Akiba identified a leader by the name of Bar Kochba (Son of the Star) as the long-promised messiah and deliverer of Israel. With rabbinic sanction, multitudes flocked to his side to fight

against the hated Romans. It would end in disaster. Half a million men, women, and children died. Rabbi Akiba was captured and tortured to death. And now the Romans had had enough of the troublesome, rebellious, freedom-loving Jews. The holy city of Jerusalem itself, God’s home on earth, was leveled and plowed over. Jews were forbidden, under penalty of death, to set foot in the new Roman city named Aelia Capitolina, which was built on the site. Even the name of the land itself was changed from Israel to Syria Philistina, from which later would come the name Palestine.

The Roman Empire, in the centuries which followed, began to decline and, in 476, fell by the weight of its own debauchery and corruption. And in the deserts of Arabia, a new religion arose. It began with the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622. Familiar with both Judaism and Christianity, Muhammad took elements of both, added his own “revelation,” and wrote the Koran (the holy book of the Islamic faith, with Ishmael, rather than Isaac, the son to be sacrificed by Abraham). In the seventh century, Muhammad’s followers, with sword in hand, swept out of the Arabian desert of the Middle East and conquered lands from Persia (modernday Iran) to southern France. Israel was one of the many victims who fell within the Islamic domain. In Jerusalem, on the site where Abraham had consented to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to his God, and the Solomonic and Herodian Temples once stood, they erected the “Dome of the Rock” (the place, according to Islamic teaching, where Muhammad ascended into Heaven) and the Al Aqsa Mosque, today the third most holy site in the Muslim world. The Muslims held sway for the next five centuries. Under their rule, the plight of the Jew would once again be difficult.

In the eleventh century, the “Christians” of Europe became aroused over the fact that the Holy Land was ruled by the Muslims. Under Richard the Lionheart, the Crusades were launched in 1095. The intent was to deliver the Holy Land from the infidel. And, what some would argue began as a noble cause, degenerated into an occasion for wickedness and debauchery of every kind. As Crusader armies, seeking adventure, liquidation of debts, and assurance of Heaven, marched across Europe

toward the Promised Land, they killed, raped, and robbed the Jews as they passed through their villages. The first contingent of Crusaders arrived in Israel in 1099. In their eagerness to “cleanse” the land from centuries of pollution, they rounded up the Jews, put them in the synagogue, locked the door, barred the gates and windows, and burned the men, women, and children to death. Thus began the “Christian” cleansing of the land in which Jesus had died to bring salvation to a sin-sick world.

The Crusaders managed to gain a foothold, and for about 100 years they controlled Palestine from strategic fortresses along the coastline and inland. Eventually they were driven out by troops from the eastern realm of Saladin the Magnificent. The Holy Land continued to be drenched in blood until it was captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1516. Under Turkish rule, landowners were taxed based on the number of trees on their property, and so trees were cut to reduce taxes. The forests were also cut down to fuel the trains of the famed Orient Express, which had a spur that ran through Palestine to Egypt. The hills became barren. The topsoil was washed away by the rains. The land languished. The fertile plains became swamps, and swarms of mosquitoes spread malaria in much of the Galilee and the Sharon along the coastal plain.

But this was not the end – more wars were to come. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his great army, entered Israel from Egypt, hoping to destroy the Ottoman Turkish Empire. He was defeated in Palestine at the fortress of Acre (Akko), north of modern-day Haifa, and returned to France.

And the ancient land – which knew greatness and glory in the days of David and Solomon, the land where Christ was born and the stage upon which redemption was acted out – lay in decay. It had become no more than a collection of sickly villages, with Jerusalem hardly more than a small town, and the whole country ruled by a governor, appointed (usually for a price) by the sultan in Turkey.

Not in all of the centuries during which the land was governed by Romans, Muslims, Crusaders, Saracens, and Turks did the people who lived in the land set up their own government. They fought over the land, they used the land, and they abused the land. But only the

Under Turkish rule, landowners were taxed based on the number of trees on their property, and so trees were cut to reduce taxes.

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his great army, entered Israel from Egypt, hoping to destroy the Ottoman Turkish Empire. He was defeated in Palestine at the fortress of Acre (Akko), north of modern-day Haifa, and returned to France.

Jew – linked to the land with an eternal love –would form a government, draw the land to her bosom, and make her to “blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

PERSECUTION

As they were uprooted and driven from country to country, there was no haven at the end of the road, no protection along the way, and ever-present danger of robbers and murderers. They were people without a land. Lies were spread that the Jews killed infant Gentile children and used their blood in the observance of Passover. In many lands they were often required to wear a badge of identification.

But what of the other Jews during all this time, most of whom had been scattered over the face of the earth? Had they fared better than their brothers and sisters who had stayed in the land?

persecution spreADs

In 1096, as many as 12,000 Jews were killed in Germany within three months. In 1290, Jews were banished from England. In 1306, Jews were banished from France. In 1348, Jews were blamed for the European plague. In 1492 (the year that Columbus discovered America), under Ferdinand and Isabella who wanted to make Spain a purely Catholic nation, the Spanish Inquisition was launched. Jews, living in Spain in large numbers, were required to convert and be baptized or they would be killed, imprisoned, or driven out of the land.

As they were uprooted and driven from country to country, there was no haven at the end of the road, no protection along the way, and ever-present danger of robbers and murderers. They were people without a land. Lies were spread that the Jews killed infant Gentile children and used their blood in the observance of Passover. In many lands they were often required to wear a badge of identification. The women had to wear bells on the bottom of their dresses as marks of shame. Jews normally could not own ground, hold a governmental office, attend educational institutions, or work in the trade guilds. Usury (the lending of money for interest, which in those days was viewed as the lowest of activities), merchandising, and shoe repair were among the few areas of gainful employment available to the Jew. (Parenthetically, it is for those reasons that when Jews arrived in America around the turn of the twentieth century, they went immediately into merchandising and insisted – now that opportunity presented itself – their children take advantage of educational opportunity.)

In 1516, the first ghetto – where Jews were herded together, placed within a restricted area, and deprived of normal opportunities –was established in Venice. At the beginning of

the nineteenth century, the largest Jewish population in the world was in Russia, and in 1883, the government permitted the infamous pogroms. More than 500 Jewish villages were victimized by over 1,200 pogroms. More than 60,000 Jews were killed, and many times that number were wounded. Here was the genuine Fiddler on the Roof. (It was these very pogroms which motivated this author’s grandparents to seek refuge in America, and here his mother would find Christ through a godly missionary to the Jewish people.) The government encouraged and then looked the other way as Russians attacked, harassed, and robbed their Jewish neighbors. But this was nothing new. Through the centuries, when governments needed diversion to draw attention away from internal problems, the Jewish people were always a convenient scapegoat.

Between the years 1933 and 1945, the greatest attempt at genocide the world has ever known occurred. Under the depraved and satanically-empowered genius of Adolph Hitler, 5.8 million Jewish lives were snuffed out in the death camps, gas chambers, and firing squads of the Third Reich. When many of the nations (and religions, most notably the papacy) of the world had it within their power to save tens of thousands of European Jews, they took no action. Most world governments not only took no action, but they refused to increase immigration quotas and open their borders. Few raised their voices in protest. For 1,900 years, the words “No Jews Wanted!” could have been written over most of the nations of the world.

Under the depraved and satanically-empowered genius of Adolph Hitler, 5.8 million Jewish lives were snuffed out in the death camps, gas chambers, and firing squads of the Third Reich.

A twisteD theology

What had the Jewish people done? What was their crime? Why this never-ending persecution? To blame it, as so many have, on the Jewish national rejection of Christ is to acknowledge a total lack of understanding of the Word of God. It is the worst kind of antiSemitism – THEOLOGICAL! Some have suggested hatred of the sons of Jacob was the result of their strange religion. In a day of polytheism, they believed in the one true, universal God. Their dietary laws, strange dress, code of conduct, and aloofness from other peoples all served to make them different and defenseless. Others have argued that abrasive character, excessive wealth, and disproportionate influence are the root cause of hatred of the Jew. These are erroneous excuses used as an attempt to justify ungodly attitudes and remain widespread right up to the present hour of history – sometimes, tragically, even among some who bring shame to the name of Christ by calling themselves “Christian.”

The only accurate explanation for antiSemitism is to be found in the fact that God sovereignly chose Israel, through her greatest Son, to be the channel for universal blessing and the ultimate defeat of Satan. To retaliate, the secret purpose of Satan, therefore, has always been to destroy the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and thereby frustrate the divine plan for redemption of mankind. This is a foundational principle for understanding 4,000 years of human history.

In the Old Testament, had the Jewish people been killed off by marching armies, or assimilated during her captivities, Jesus never could have been born in Bethlehem as the Son of David, to die on Calvary for the sins of the world. And, in the ensuing years, if the Jews had ceased to exist as a people through her many vicissitudes, if she were not brought back to establish the land of Israel, Jesus could not return to consummate our salvation.

Jesus is not a usurper. He will return as the rightful Heir to the throne of David. He will be the King of the Jews and then King of all kings and Lord of all lords, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5).

Anti- semitism

The only accurate explanation for anti-Semitism is to be found in the fact that God sovereignly chose Israel, through her greatest Son, to be the channel for universal blessing and the ultimate defeat of Satan. To retaliate, the secret purpose of Satan, therefore, has always been to destroy the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and thereby frustrate the divine plan for redemption of mankind. This is a foundational principle for understanding 4,000 years of human history.

Satan has used his considerable power through the ages to attack God’s chosen people through governments, religions, and individual hatred. But in spite of satanically inspired Crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, dispersions, ghettos, burnings, and butcheries, the Jews have miraculously kept their identity. Their belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; their divine national destiny; and the promise of a land given by God in perpetuity was strong enough to enable them to grasp the tail of one of the cyclones of history and ride that cyclone through two world wars back to their ancient homeland.

Jesus will return as the rightful Heir to the throne of David. He will be the King of the Jews and then King of all kings and Lord of all lords, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5).

Can These

Bones Live?

Ezekiel looked on in stunned disbelief.

Before him lay a valley of bones. The bones were “very dry,” indicating the life they once supported was a long time dead. Nor was this a singular corpse, for the valley was “full of bones” (Ezekiel 37:1-2). As the prophet beheld the scene before him, God posed a question to His perplexed servant: “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3). Everything normal, everything natural, everything pragmatic, everything humanistic argued for a negative response. How could dry bones ever live? But, the prophet was a man of deep faith. His response was simply, “O Lord God, thou knowest” (Ezekiel 37:3).

The prophet seemed to be saying, These bones look dead to me. Humanly speaking, I don’t see how they could possibly live; this is not a case of curing the sick, but of raising the dead. But Lord, You cast the stars into space. You spoke the world into existence. You fashioned man from the dust of the earth. If You want these bones to live, they can live. “O Lord God, thou knowest.”

And, as the prophet prophesied as he was commanded, “there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them” (Ezekiel 37:7-8).

So that no one ever needed to question this miraculous scene, God himself gave the interpretation. The dry bones symbolized the dispersed Jews, driven from the Land of Promise (in A.D. 70 and again in A.D. 135), scattered

THE DRY BONES SYMBOLIZED THE DISPERSED JEWS, DRIVEN FROM THE LAND OF PROMISE (IN A.D. 70 AND AGAIN IN A.D. 135).

among the nations of the world and, as a nation, both physically and spiritually dead – deep in the grave they lay (Ezekiel 37:11). The noise, the shaking, the bones coming together, the sinews and the flesh coming upon them, spoke of Israel’s physical resurrection and restoration to the land (Ezekiel 36-37). But, this restoration would be in unbelief – there was no breath in them (Ezekiel 37:8). The Bible is clear: Israel’s physical restoration to the land must precede her spiritual regeneration in the land (Ezekiel 37:14). A requisite for end-time events is that Israel, in unbelief, signs a covenant with the Antichrist (Daniel 9:24-27). As a remnant returned from the Babylonian captivity in three stages and over a period of about ninety-one years (under Zerubbabel, 536 B.C.; Ezra, 458 B.C.; Nehemiah, 445 B.C.), the present return has also been in stages. It will consummate in spiritual regeneration at Christ’s return. God will breathe upon Israel. A nation will be born spiritually in a day (Isaiah 66:8). But first must come “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7).

“RuleRs” of The land

Rome governed Israel from 63 B.C. until A.D. 320. They were supplanted by the Byzantines (Constantinople and the eastern wing of Rome after the Roman Empire was divided), who stayed until defeated by the Arabs in 636. The Arabs continued to rule until unseated by the Seljuks (a Turkish dynasty) in 1072. The “Christian” crusaders (Europe – mainly England, Germany, and France) wrested control from the Seljuks in 1099, only to be defeated by the Mamluks (Egyptian) in 1187. They, in turn, fell prey to the Ottoman Turks in 1516, who ruled for 400 years until they were dethroned by the British in 1917. Each came seeking to possess the land of Abraham. But, as certainly as they entered, they were spewed out by God. And, from A.D. 70 through all those centuries, the Jewish people, scattered among the nations of the world, lay in the grave – dead. The bones were very dry. Only an all-knowing and all-powerful God could ever have foretold and engineered Israel’s return to her ancient homeland.

how iT Began

No one can, with precision, date the moment the dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley began

to make “noise,” but a logical starting point is 1897. The occasion was the First Zionist Congress convened at Basel, Switzerland. The luminary figure on that occasion was Dr. Theodor Herzl. He would later say, “At Basel, I laid the foundation of the Jewish state. After five, or perhaps fifty years, everybody will realize it.” That was a strange statement and yet, amazingly, exactly fifty years later, in 1947, the United Nations would partition Palestine as a major step to establishing a Jewish homeland. But that’s getting ahead of the story.

Herzl had been sent to Paris as a correspondent of a well-known Austrian newspaper. While there, he viewed repeated instances of anti-Semitism, culminating with the infamous trial of Alfred Dreyfus in 1894. Dreyfus was a captain on the general staff of the French Army – the only Jew to serve in such an elevated position. He was accused of giving secrets to the enemy and was tried before a military court-martial. Although the evidence was overwhelming that Dreyfus was innocent, after two trials the “Jewish” captain was found guilty. Only after years of torture and imprisonment on Devil’s Island was he exonerated of all charges lodged against him. But, the antiSemitic furor which had been fanned by the Dreyfus trial shocked Herzl and European Jewry. Angered and stirred, he wrote a pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), calling for a homeland for the wandering Jewish people. It would appear God was in it. The pamphlet was translated into many languages. In large measure, as a result, the First Zionist Congress was convened.

Max Nordau, one of the distinguished delegates, drafted a document which set forth Zionist aims. The opening statement is an accurate definition of Zionism. “Zionism,” he wrote, “seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.” The movement toward a Jewish homeland was not without problems from the very beginning. Many Jews were vehemently opposed to a Jewish state, content where they were or fearful that attempts to establish a Jewish homeland would ignite new waves of anti-Semitism. Among those who favored a new homeland, debate raged over where to locate it; in part because efforts to deal with the Ottoman Turks, who were in control of Palestine at the time, proved futile.

“RULERS” OF THE LAND

ROME

63 B.C.–A.D. 320

BYZANTINES

A.D. 320–636

ARABS

636–1072

SELJUKS 1072–1099

CRUSADERS 1099–1187

MAMLUKS 1187–1516

OTTOMAN TURKS 1516–1917

BRITISH

1917–1948

From A.D. 70 through all those centuries, the Jewish people, scattered among the nations of the world, lay in the grave – dead. The bones were very dry. Only an all-knowing and all-powerful God could ever have foretold and engineered Israel’s return to her ancient homeland.

Dr. Theodor Herzl

He would later say, “At Basel, I laid the foundation of the Jewish state. After five, or perhaps fifty years, everybody will realize it.”

Argentina

North America

Sinai Peninsula Uganda

In the end, the invisible, divine magnetism of their ancient homeland would prove irresistible. Only there could a truly Jewish state be forged.

Serious alternate suggestions to establish the new state in places like Argentina, North America, the Sinai Peninsula, and Uganda were made, examined, and rejected. In the end, the invisible, divine magnetism of their ancient homeland would prove irresistible. Only there could a truly Jewish state be forged. However, so formidable was the opposition to a Jewish homeland by many Jews – so unlikely its chances of success – that friends of Herzl suggested he visit a psychiatrist. Instead, he visited Baron Hirsch, a Jewish multimillionaire with whom he shared his plans. This wealthy Jewish man, likewise, considered Herzl a mere visionary, a dreamer of dreams that would never be realized. Despite his doubts, Herzl went to the Sultan of Turkey and offered to buy the land of Palestine, which was then under Turkish control. For Herzl’s troubles, the sultan presented him with three Medals of Honor – but no land. Still this man, with the piercing eyes of a prophet, who once commented, “If you will it, it is no dream,” pressed on as if “possessed.”

opponenTs and suppoRTeRs

Generally unknown is the fact that while many Jews were initially opposed to a Jewish homeland, many true believers sought to give support to what they understood to be a divine undertaking. In the Jewish Agency Building in Jerusalem is a large room which is a replica of Dr. Herzl’s study. The appointments are original – his desk, a number of his chairs, and the pulpit from which he spoke at the First Zionist Congress. On the wall is a framed photograph of his good friend, the Reverend Mr. Hechler, the chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna. It was this good friend who opened doors of opportunity by introducing Herzl to prominent people in Europe, including the famous Grand Duke of Baden, who was the uncle of Emperor William II of Germany – all of this as Herzl tried tirelessly to gain the support of major European nations for his dream of a Jewish homeland.

Also found in the replica of Herzl’s study is his library. Among these books is a very special Bible. It was presented to him by a Mr. A. Holland of Surrey, England, on August 24, 1900. On the flyleaf of the Bible, Mr. Holland wrote, “See Ezekiel, Chapters 36 to 39” (which speak glowingly of the

resurrection of the land of Israel and the restoration of its people to the land). On the second flyleaf, Mr. Holland had written references to Isaiah 53 (which describes the fact of Messiah’s death) and Daniel 9:25-27 (which foretells the time of Messiah’s death), and the New Testament fulfillment in Matthew, Chapters 26 and 27. What is particularly meaningful to this author are the words inscribed for the presentation to Dr. Herzl:

Kindly accept this Old and New Testament, His pure Word, from a lover of Israel, God’s ancient people. May the God of Israel guide you and your helpers in the work of deliverance.

When the Turkish rule over Palestine fell to the British as a result of the First World War in 1917, it was General Allenby, a godly believer and lover of Israel, who captured the city of Jerusalem without firing a shot. Before attacking the city, he literally requested that believers back in England pray for three days. As his army approached the city walls, the Arab defenders threw down their weapons and fled. In great humility, he dismounted and walked into the holy city, clearly stating he did not want to ride as a conquering hero into the city of Jerusalem, the city to which his Savior would one day return to become King of kings and Lord of lords.

MiRaCle woRkeRs

One day a group of Galilean farmers in the north made their way to a British bank located in Jerusalem. They wanted to borrow money to drain the malaria-infested swamp of the Huleh Valley located just north of the Sea of Galilee. They had no collateral. The bank committee met, considered the request, and turned it down. One of the Jewish Galilean farmers knew the bank president was a Christian who believed the Bible and so he directed the president to the Book of Ezekiel and read these few words, “For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown” (Ezekiel 36:9). The Jewish farmer then asked the Christian banker, “What is the ‘you’ God is referring to?” The banker looked at the context for a moment and said, “The ‘you’ refers to the land of Israel. God is saying, ‘I am for you.’” The farmer quickly responded, “All we want

Serious alternate suggestions to establish the new state:

Argentina

to do is help God out. We need some money to drain the swamp and work the soil.” The bank president walked back into the committee meeting, and they reconsidered the request. The loan was approved, and today the Huleh Valley stands as one of the spectacular agricultural achievements of the modern state of Israel.

The Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem is the finest in the Middle East. Today, medicine is an advanced science in Israel, comparable to the best in the world; but 75 years ago (before the advent of the modern nation) there was little hospital care in Israel, except for that which was provided by Christians who treated both Jews and Arabs in the name of Jesus Christ.

Few informed people today can deny the quality, courage, and dedication of the Israeli army. However, not as many realize that the man who initially trained the Israelis in guerrilla warfare and night fighting was a British officer. His name was Orde Wingate. He, too, was a godly believer. In one hand he carried a rifle, in the other a Bible. He took the Bible literally and believed God meant what He said and said what He meant. Wingate was convinced God intended Palestine be a homeland for the Jew. Even today in Israel, by those old enough to remember, Wingate is spoken of with great warmth and affection. An agricultural school and many streets have been affectionately named after him.

The “weizMann faCToR”

While there were those forces within the world Jewish community who opposed Herzl and his dream for a Jewish homeland, there were those courageous souls who stood with him. One such man was Chaim Weizmann. More than any other mortal, he, along with Herzl, was responsible for the modern state of Israel. He worked earnestly for the cause of Zionism since his young manhood. During the latter part of the First World War, Britain and her allies were in the midst of a great crisis. The very outcome of the war itself may have been at stake. The chemical “acetone,” used in making cordite, was in short supply. It was essential for the production of explosives, desperately needed for the war effort. Lloyd George, at that time the Minister of Munitions, contacted Chaim Weizmann, who was a brilliant chemist work-

ing at the University of Manchester. He conveyed Britain’s desperate need. The chemist rolled up his sleeves and went to work day and night. Within weeks, Weizmann developed an improved substitute for the scarce acetone. The day was saved for the British and her allies. The government, wanting to express gratitude, asked Dr. Weizmann what they could do to show their appreciation. The response was, “Nothing for me, but for my people, a homeland in Palestine.”

Lloyd George did not forget his indebtedness. As soon as he became Prime Minister, he conferred with Lord Balfour, who was the Foreign Secretary, concerning the request of the Jewish chemist who had rendered such valuable service to Great Britain. Both were favorably disposed toward the Jewish cause. At least, to some degree (and there were other factors), this request was responsible for the historic British “Balfour Declaration” of November 2, 1917. The Declaration stated:

His Majesty’s Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Twenty years earlier, delegates at the First Zionist Congress expressed their desire to “seek to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine SECURED UNDER PUBLIC LAW” (emphasis added). With publication of the “Balfour Declaration,” Great Britain, at that time the world’s most powerful nation, expressed agreement with and support for that goal. The bones which had begun to make a “noise” two decades earlier were now beginning to “shake and come together.”

Shortly after World War I, the League of Nations, which was to become the forerunner of the United Nations, was formed. In 1922, five years after the “Balfour Declaration,” that international body gave a mandate to Great Britain to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. Now “sinew and flesh” were beginning to cover those dead bones.

Balfour Declaration

With publication of the “Balfour Declaration,” Great Britain, at that time the world’s most powerful nation, expressed agreement with and support for that goal. The bones which had begun to make a “noise” two decades earlier were now beginning to “shake and come together.”

Prime Minister Lloyd George

a land in need of a faCelifT

Mark Twain wrote, describing the area north of the Sea of Galilee about 150 years ago: “There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – more than thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see any human being.”

During the years that Herzl and his followers sought recognition of a Jewish state, other Jews fleeing persecution, or with idealistic dreams, returned by the thousands from Russia, Poland, and other countries to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their seed as an everlasting possession. What they found was a barren, desolate, malaria-infested, swampy land. Mark Twain, describing the area north of the Sea of Galilee about 150 years ago, wrote:

There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent – more than thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see any human being.

With help from wealthy Jews abroad, somehow they began to buy the land for what the absentee landlords thought was exorbitant profit. Literally thousands of these early pioneers died from malaria and other diseases as they planted eucalyptus trees and drained the swamps. But still they came.

And somehow – in the midst of politics, with a far greater Arab population in the Middle East, with the increased interest in oil, with movement toward the Second World War – the “Balfour Declaration” and the League of Nations mandate to Great Britain were all but forgotten.

With the rise of Nazism in 1933, Jews, in increasingly large numbers, began to flee Germany and the concentration and death camps of Adolph Hitler. Many, out of desperation, made their way to Palestine. The surrounding Arab nations, displeased by this surge of Jewish immigration, began to put pressure on the British to stop the flow of Jews. Their leverage was the impending Second World War. The Arabs rightly understood the British would need them as allies, should a war break out, much as they needed them in the First World War during the days of T.E. Lawrence, better known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” Under this pressure, in 1938, the British instituted the “White Papers,” restricting Jewish immigration

into Israel to 15,000 a year – this at a time when Europe’s Jews were blocked by immigration quotas from entering most of the other nations of the world as well.

Would the bones – which by this time had come together, were connected with sinew, and covered with flesh – collapse under the weight of such pressure? During the Second World War, the Jews in Israel set aside their feud with the British and fought on the side of the allies. Only after the war did the world come to know the enormity of Nazi crimes against the Jews of Eastern Europe. Approximately 5.8 million Jewish people – more than one-third of world Jewry at the time – were murdered in the concentration camps, death camps, and before the firing squads of the Third Reich. Tragically, this was not the doing of what we would refer to as a barbaric people, but among nations that called themselves “Christian.”

The JouRney hoMe

Following the war, many survivors of the Holocaust, using whatever mode of transportation possible, tried to make their way to Israel. The British, still rigidly enforcing their “White Papers,” would capture boats carrying Jews who were seeking to enter Israel and send them back to their port of embarkation in Europe or confine them on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. From there they would allow only 1,500 per month to enter Israel.

Despite the incredible difficulties they faced, the Jewish people came – until a large ship filled with Holocaust survivors was stopped by the British. The British captain demanded that the ship turn back. The ship’s commanders refused. The British threatened to board the ship. The crew countered that they would blow the ship up with all aboard before the eyes of the world. The British impeded the ship’s forward progress. The passengers went on a hunger strike with the intent of throwing the bodies of those who perished over the side. The world, for the moment, sympathetic – as the facts of the Holocaust were now coming to light – looked on through the news media. The ship was named “The Exodus.”

Thirty years earlier, the British voiced their intent to establish a homeland for the Jews in

Palestine. Twenty-five years earlier, the League of Nations gave them a mandate to establish that homeland. But they reneged on their promise and moral obligation. Now frustrated and unable to quell the disturbances between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine, the British turned the matter over to the now-existing United Nations for resolution. Today, Great Britain is spiritually and morally bankrupt. In the day Great Britain issued the “Balfour Declaration,” intending to establish a Jewish homeland, she was the greatest nation in the world. The standard motto regarding Britain was, “The sun never set on the British Empire.” But “how are the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19, 27). The British government had a moral and legal right to help establish a homeland for the Jewish people but because of political consideration, she reneged on her promise. For nations and individuals, the Word of God still stands: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Genesis 12:3).

an hisToRiC VoTe

The thorny Jewish problem was placed into the lap of the United Nations. In November of 1947, they voted to partition Palestine and establish a homeland for the Jew. Two key factors in the outcome of the vote were: (1) world sympathy because of the Jewish atrocities suffered during the Second World War; and (2) an American president, Harry Truman. In the days leading up to the U.N.’s vote on the partitioning of Palestine to establish a Jewish and a Palestinian state, things appeared bleak for the Jewish cause. Sentiment in the United Nations was not favorable. America’s ambassador to the United Nations stood in opposition to partition. So too, did our State Department. Before entering politics, Harry Truman was a haberdasher – he owned a fashionable men’s clothing store. But in God’s sovereignty, he had a partner who was Jewish. “Harry’s” old friend flew to Washington to see him. He pled with the president to give his people a chance. The president was understandably noncommittal. But when his friend left, the president called America’s ambassador to the United Nations and ordered him to support the partition plan. Other nations followed America’s lead. When the vote finally came, it took only three min-

utes, but to world Jewry it seemed to stretch the entire 1,900 years of her exile.

how The un VoTed

Afghanistan, no; Argentina, abstain; Australia, yes; Belgium, yes; Bolivia, yes; Brazil, yes; Byelorussia, yes; Canada, yes; Chile, abstain; China, abstain; Colombia, abstain; Costa Rica, yes; Cuba, no; Czechoslovakia, yes; Denmark, yes; Dominican Republic, yes; Ecuador, yes; Egypt, no; El Salvador, abstain; Ethiopia, abstain; France, yes; Greece, no; Guatemala, yes; Haiti, yes; Honduras, abstain; Iceland, yes; India, no; Iran, no; Iraq, no; Lebanon, no; Liberia, yes; Luxembourg, yes; Mexico, abstain; Netherlands, yes; New Zealand, yes; Nicaragua, yes; Norway, yes; Pakistan, no; Panama, yes; Paraguay, yes; Peru, yes; Philippines, yes; Poland, yes; Saudi Arabia, no; South Africa, yes; Sweden, yes; Syria, no; Turkey, no; Ukraine, yes; United Kingdom, abstain; Uruguay, yes; U.S.A., yes; U.S.S.R., yes; Venezuela, yes; Yemen, no; Yugoslavia, abstain.

At last – as outlined in the First Zionist Congress of 1897 – a Jewish homeland, in Palestine, was secured under public law. An ancient Jewish sage once wrote:

Blatant Arab threats notwithstanding, on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the nation’s first Prime Minister – in conformity with the United Nations’ action – in an emotional speech, declared Israel a free and independent nation among the nations of the world. The bones which Ezekiel saw prophetically 2,500 years earlier had made a “noise,” they “shook,” the bones “came together,” and “the sinews and flesh” had come upon them. Now, at last, the bones “stood up upon their feet” (Ezekiel 37:10).

But, could she survive in a hostile environment, surrounded by Islamic nations committed to her destruction?

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the nation’s first Prime Minister –in conformity with the United Nations’ action – in an emotional speech, declared Israel a free and independent nation among the nations of the world. The bones which Ezekiel saw prophetically 2,500 years earlier had made a “noise,” they “shook,” the bones “came together,” and “the sinews and flesh” had come upon them. Now, at last, the bones “stood up upon their feet” (Ezekiel 37:10).

ON MAY 14, 1948, ISRAEL IS DECLARED A NATION. ON MAY 15, SIX ARAB NATIONS – EGYPT, SYRIA, JORDAN (TRANSJORDAN), LEBANON, SAUDI ARABIA, AND IRAQ – INVADED ISRAEL.

A NAtioN Reborn

Through the FAithful HANd of God

With the United Nations resolution of November, 1947, Israel became a “paper” nation.

Legally, Palestine was partitioned. The nations of the world had given Israel back a piece of the land that God had promised to Abraham and his posterity when He said, “Walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee” (Genesis 13:17). To be sure, what the United Nations gave was small – less than a fourth of the size the British proposed in the mandate of 1917 – smaller than

the state of New Jersey. But it was something –a land, a home, a place – to which the wandering Jewish people could return, be welcomed, and lay their weary heads. But, could what was given in theory be sustained in practice?

In 1948, there were only 640,000 Jews in all of Israel. The surrounding Arab nations had a combined population of over 80 million, and they threatened to drive the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. Israel only had six months to prepare for the inevitable attack. The nearly 100,000 British troops, who had kept a shaky,

©Getty Images

uneven, largely pro-Arab peace, would then leave.

Many world leaders agreed that if Israel declared herself a nation, the numerically superior and far-better-equipped Arabs would attack, and Israel would be stillborn. General George Marshall, America’s Secretary of State, counseled his friend, David Ben-Gurion, to bide his time until a more favorable political climate could develop for declaring Israel’s nationhood. Ben-Gurion, later reflecting on the general’s advice, said:

Marshall could not know what we knew – what we felt in our very bones: that this was our historic hour, if we did not live up to it, through fear or weakness of spirit, it might be generations or even centuries before our people were given another historic opportunity – if indeed we would be alive as a national group.

SurrouNdiNg NAtioNS AttAck the New couNtry

On May 14, 1948, Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel’s first Prime Minister, stood up in a hastily prepared press conference in a movie theater in Tel Aviv (because Israel did not possess Jerusalem) and declared Israel a nation among the nations of the world. On May 15, the last of the British forces withdrew. The same day, six Arab nations – Egypt, Syria, Jordan (Transjordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq – invaded Israel. They approached like a fistful of fingers that would close together and squeeze the life out of the infant state.

Israel in 1948: 640,000 Jewish People

Surrounding Arab Countries in 1948: 80 million, and they threatened to drive the Jews into the Sea

The invading armies had a carefully devised plan and a precise timetable. The Egyptians were to sweep up the coast from the south and then fork out. One force would take Jaffa-Tel Aviv along the Mediterranean Sea. The second force would join the Jordanian Arab legion and converge on Jerusalem. From the east, Iraqi troops would race westward across Palestine toward the Mediterranean to slice Israel in half. In the north, the Syrians and Lebanese would join forces to secure the Galilee and Haifa.

For the first month, battles raged up and down the land. The Jewish forces – initially without a tank, a fighter plane, or a field gun –suffered heavy casualties. The situation looked very grim. Through the efforts of the United Nations, a truce went into effect on June 11. It would only last until July 9. But, it gave Israel a month’s reprieve. It would prove to be all she needed.

Knowing war was coming, Israeli agents were sent out to locate caches of military equipment. At the same time, Golda Meir, an amazing and courageous woman who would later become Prime Minister, was dispatched to America. Her assignment: raise $5 million to purchase weapons. Born in Russia, brought to America as a child, she lived, was educated, and taught school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was totally “Americanized.” As a young woman and a Zionist, she immigrated to Israel. Now back in America, the first night at a rally in New York she raised $11 million – in a matter of weeks she would raise more than $50 million. Word went out to Israeli agents to buy whatever equipment they could. Much of it was antiquated, but Israel was glad to get it. During that brief month of peace, the equipment purchased through the funds “Golda” raised began to trickle into the country.

heroic feAtS

When fighting resumed, the Arabs discovered a drastic turn of events. There is hardly a settlement in Israel that does not have its tales of tanks stopped at the gate with Molotov cocktails, of rifles snatched up for use from the hands of the dead, of literally fighting at 10-to-l odds – unembellished feats of individual and group heroism that would compare with the

On May 14, 1948, Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel’s first Prime Minister, stood up in a hastily prepared press conference in a movie theater in Tel Aviv and declared Israel a nation among the nations of the world.

©Newscom

exploits of Joshua, Gideon, and King David.

Egypt sent an armada of ships to shell the city of Tel Aviv located on the Mediterranean coast. Israel had no ships, no guns – she lay at the mercy of the attacking armada. Two young Israelis went aloft to meet the attacking ships, their plane a small two-seater, their bombs

Egypt sent an armada of ships to shell the city of Tel Aviv . . . Israel had no ships, no guns –she lay at the mercy of the attacking armada.

homemade. The pilot was David Sprinzak, whose father would become the first Speaker of the Israeli Parliament. The bombardier was Mati Sukenik, whose father helped secure and decipher the Dead Sea Scrolls. The little plane dove on the lead ship and hit it. The entire armada turned tail and fled. Tel Aviv was saved. Tragically, the plane crashed, and both young men died.

A major Egyptian force was moving north through the Negev. In its path stood a kibbutz (a communal farm) composed of nothing more than a row of cabins around a concrete water tower in the open desert.

Moshe Dayan commanded a jeep mounted machine-gun group designated “Samson’s Foxes” in a battle in the Sinai. Within ten days the Egyptian assault was shattered and their casualties high with much of their equipment in Jewish hands.

The kibbutz had seventy-five settlers, to which were added seventy more fighters. Their total arsenal consisted of eighty rifles, two machine guns, and an antitank gun with five shells. Anticipating an attack, a complete underground fortress was built, staffed by a doctor and four nurses. Totally surrounded by the enemy, supplied only by a small plane, with every above-ground building destroyed, the Negba Kibbutz defenders continued to fight. On one day alone, June 2, an estimated 6,000 shells fell on the surrounded garrison. Then came the major attack: seven Egyptian tanks, twelve armored cars, 2,000 men – and overhead flying cover, were two Arab-flown Spitfires. The battle lasted five hours. When the dust had cleared, six tanks had been hit, one Spitfire shot down, and the Egyptians had pulled back. After six months, the defenders emerged from their bunkers victorious.

A little more than a month later, Egypt renewed its attack. This time they were met head-on in the Sinai by a rugged group of jeepmounted machine-gun commandos dubbed with the biblical designation “Samson’s Foxes.”

Within ten days, the dazed Egyptians would find their assault shattered, casualties high, and much of their equipment in Jewish hands. One of those commando units was commanded by an eye-patched officer who would later become Chief of Staff. His name was Moshe Dayan.

At the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, where the lake empties into the Jordan River, stands the oldest and largest kibbutz in Israel. Its name is Degania. Combined Arab forces came against Degania with tanks and machine guns. In bitter fighting, the Arab forces gained entrance to the colony through the barbed wire. Things looked desperate. As the tanks began to enter the compound, two young people, a boy and a girl about fifteen or sixteen years of age, were concealed in the bushes. They had crude, handmade weapons – bottles of phosphorus that burst into flame when broken. One of these young people threw one of the Molotov cocktails at a tank. The bottle burst – the tank caught fire. The attacking troops, seeing the destruction of one tank and damage to three others, fled in disarray. The kibbutz and city of Tiberias were saved and another attack blunted. For many years, tourists to Israel could see the tank at the entrance to the kibbutz, left as a memorial.

In another major battle, Iraqi, Syrian, and Transjordanian forces came together to capture northern Israel and the major city of Haifa. It was at a Jewish colony near Mount Megiddo that the decisive battle took place. Once again, the Jews found themselves out-gunned, outmanned, and surrounded. The besieged Jews had very few arms and had given up all hope of deliverance. Suddenly, there was a gap in the Arab lines. To this day, no one has an explanation for it. Jewish defense forces at once entered

Iraqi, Syrian, and Transjordanian forces came together to capture northern Israel and the major city of Haifa. Once again, the Jews found themselves out-gunned, out-manned, and surrounded.

MARVIN J. ROSENTHAL

the colony through the gap to reinforce the beleaguered defenders. Stunned at this reversal, the Arabs withdrew their forces. This was the turning point in the battle for the Jezreel Valley (site of the future battle of Armageddon) and northern Israel.

All hostilities were concluded by January 7, 1949. The War of Independence was over. Israel was a nation, not only on paper, but in substance. Not only had she held on to the United Nations-allocated land, but she captured additional territory in the north, south, and central areas. It had been a long time coming – almost 1,900 years. And the final eight months had not been without great cost. More than 4,000 soldiers and 2,000 civilians had given their last ounce of devotion. The financial drain on the young nation was staggering – $500 million.

In the calculations of the nuclear century, Israel is an insignificant piece of real estate; her bridge is fragile, her highway narrow. And, to this insignificant and fragile land, Jewish people in great numbers from all over the world began to return. Something inside would say, “It’s time to go home.”

the 1956 wAr

In 1956, the modern state of Israel found herself engaged in a second war. General Gamal Abdel Nasser was, in 1948, a colonel in the Egyptian army. He was defeated in battle near the very spot where David had defeated Goliath almost 3,000 years earlier. Later, Nasser seized power in Egypt. Like Hitler, he wrote of how he would expand his sphere of influence and unite the Arab world. And like Hitler, the glue to solidify his aim would be hatred of the Jewish people. It was easy to suggest to the languishing Arab refugees who chose to flee Israel during the War of Independence, “You have been driven from your homes by the Jews!” A group of terrorists and murderers were trained to slip undetected into Israel to ambush and kill. Supplied and encouraged by the Soviet Union, who desperately wanted a foothold in the Middle East, Nasser seized the British-owned Suez Canal. Ben-Gurion decided to strike at once and sent General Dayan into the Sinai to lead the charge. His troops destroyed terrorist

bases and captured large stores of Soviet arms. Within ten days, the Egyptian resistance was broken and Dayan penetrated to the Suez Canal, capturing the Red Sea port of Sharm El Sheikh, opening the Straits of Tiran to Israeli vessels. Under United Nations pressure, Israel withdrew, but the waterways were now open.

the Six-dAy wAr

Israel knew an attack was imminent. In June of 1967, Israel found herself in a squeeze play for the third time in nineteen years. A nation that wanted only peace, who preferred her hardware be used for farming, found this by-now-familiar cycle traumatic and disheartening. This time the major antagonists were Syria and Egypt. Israel knew she had to attack first. She launched a few planes at a time from different airfields throughout the country. As these staggered flights flew west, away from Arab lands, apparently posing no threat, they knew exactly how far they had to fly to go beyond Egyptian and Syrian radar screen capability to track them. Then the planes turned around and descended to an elevation just above the Mediterranean Sea, but beneath radar capability to detect them. Each plane had a predetermined target. Within hours the planes of six Arab nations were destroyed while still on the ground. The war itself would last a total of six days.

In this six-day period, Israel captured the strategic Golan Heights in the northeast from Syria; the entire Sinai in the south from the Egyptians; and, most significantly, the Old City of Jerusalem, biblical Judea-Samaria (the West Bank), and Gaza from Jordan. Few battles in the history of mankind were more awesome. An observer put it this way:

By a feat of arms unparalleled in modern times, the Israelis, surrounded by enemies superior in quantity and quality of equipment and overwhelmingly superior in numbers, had fought a war on three fronts and not only survived, but won a resounding victory.

In 1948, Israel won an amazing battle for national survival against six invading armies.

In 1956, the modern state of Israel found herself engaged in a second war. General Gamal Abdel Nasser was, in 1948, a colonel in the Egyptian army. Later, Nasser seized power in Egypt. Like Hitler, he wrote of how he would expand his sphere of influence and unite the Arab world.

In 1956, when terrorists were sniping at her and the closing of the Suez Canal threatened to strangle the life out of her, she launched a daring campaign into the Sinai and emerged victorious. In 1967, in imminent danger of being attacked by three nations – and rightfully convinced that Syria was diverting the life-sustaining waters of the Jordan River –she initiated a preemptive strike with such precision that the whole world was stunned. To the spiritually discerning mind, it was the God of Israel who was behind these amazing victories.

the 1973 yom kippur wAr

not to disrupt the religious holidays and offend the religious Jews. Amazingly, they did nothing.

With perhaps as many as 1,800 tanks at the ready, the Syrians started over the Golan Heights to attack a totally unprepared army. Simultaneously, the Egyptians, in a massive show of strength, crossed the Suez Canal to be met by less than 500 Israeli soldiers defending the antitank Bar-Lev Line. Most soldiers were on leave because of the high holy religious holiday.

Egypt and Syria launched a massive coordinated attack – Egypt across the Suez Canal and Syria over the Golan Heights.

But, following the Six-Day War, Israel made a major mistake. She gloried not in what the God of her forefathers had done for her, but in what she thought she had done for herself. Israel was lifted up with pride, pride of invincibility and self-sufficiency. And so, on a quiet day in October, Israel found herself in another war. It was Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), October 6, 1973. Egypt and Syria launched a massive coordinated attack – Egypt across the Suez Canal and Syria over the Golan Heights. The Israeli intelligence-gathering capability is among the best in the world. Literally hundreds of warnings were received from secret agents telling of the impending attack. American intelligence confirmed the attack forty-eight hours in advance. But, it was as though the Jewish leaders had a veil placed over their eyes; they refused to heed the repeated and urgent warnings. Jewish leadership was either convinced the Arabs would not attack or confident they could handily repel any infringement on Israel’s territory.

They chose not to launch a preemptive strike, as they had in 1967, fearful of worldwide condemnation as an aggressor. They chose not to mobilize, lest it be a false alarm and they needlessly disrupt the economy. They chose

Within hours the Israeli government realized the magnitude of the attack. Israel was fighting once again for her survival. Her planes took to the skies and tried gallantly to stem the tide. Russian-built SAM 7s (surface-to-air missiles), however, formed an umbrella-like protection over the advancing armies. In air-to-air combat, it was no contest – the Israelis were clearly superior. But, they had difficulty against the ground-to-air missiles which kept them at bay. Newly deployed Russian antitank weapons were also taking a heavy toll on Israel’s mechanized units. In the early days of the war, the situation looked desperate.

According to the article “How Israel Got the Bomb” in Time magazine, April 12, 1976, Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Chief of Staff, requested permission of Prime Minister Golda Meir to arm their atomic bombs. They came out of storage silos and were moved to a number of airfields to be armed and readied, if needed. Russia, seeing what Israel was doing, began to ship tactical, nuclear weapons to Alexandria and loaded paratroopers onto planes headed toward Libya in North Africa. President Nixon, alerted to the Russian activity, called a red alert for American armed forces worldwide. Superpower confrontation and atomic war were distinct possibilities.

At that moment, a brilliant Israeli general and tank commander by the name of Ariel Sharon was able to break through the Egyptian advance in the Sinai and cross the Suez Canal. His troops fanned out and destroyed the SAM 7 missile sites. Israeli planes now controlled the skies. In the following days, in what was one of history’s largest tank battles, the Egyptian mechanized units were destroyed on the sands of the Sinai Desert. Jewish troops continued to cross the Canal and encircled

the Egyptian Third Army. The Egyptians were totally cut off.

At the same time, there was a dramatic change in the battle for the Golan Heights. Acts of heroism abounded and gave Israel a chance to mobilize her reserve forces. Among the most conspicuous were the exploits of a young Israeli, Zvi Greengold. He was on leave when news of the outbreak of fighting reached him. Hitchhiking north, he arrived at headquarters and asked for a command. He was given four tanks and sent into the battle. Over the next thirty hours, Zvi Greengold would wreak havoc on the enemy. When other tanks in his command were destroyed, he fought alone, engaging one of the main thrusts of the Syrian advance. Through the night he darted in and out among the hills to destroy enemy tanks and then quickly melt into the dark. His tank was hit and set afire. Zvi flung himself to the ground, wounded and suffering burns on his arms and face. Still, the lieutenant commandeered a passing Israeli tank and continued his war. Zvi Greengold, son of survivors of the Holocaust, had, according to figures given by his officers, destroyed or damaged sixty Syrian tanks single-handedly.

In time, both the Syrian and Egyptian invasions were repelled; the entire atmosphere of the war changed. Israel’s atomic bombs went back into storage silos; the Russians recalled their tactical nuclear weapons, and unloaded their paratroopers; and the American armed forces were taken off red alert. Israel now had the capability of destroying both Cairo, Egypt, and Damascus, Syria. But, within forty-eight hours, the United Nations called for a ceasefire. America feared that the Soviet Union, with so much at stake, would be forced to directly intervene if Israel were not stopped and, therefore, put tremendous pressure on Israel to cease fire. While Israel was fighting for her life, few nations protested and the United Nations took little action; but when the tide of battle miraculously changed, the United Nations acted with great dispatch.

For Israel, at least for the moment, the day was saved. Israel was so shocked, however, that it would take her some months to realize the Yom Kippur War was, in reality, a victory. The pride which had characterized Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War was no longer present.

The nation had almost been defeated. If the Egyptians had not halted their early advance to bring up reinforcements in order to consolidate her surprising early success; if a small contingency of Israeli soldiers had not been able to slow the Syrian advance until the reservists were mobilized – the nation would have been pushed into the Mediterranean Sea. Obviously, the God of Israel had other plans.

the “ thorN BuSh” iSrAel

Long centuries ago, Moses saw a bush that burned and was not consumed. He said, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt” (Exodus 3:3). The burning bush Moses beheld needed no hot flame to reduce it quickly into a heap of white ashes. In all probability the region was arid and dry, the bush scorched and withered, its leaves dead and limp, its branches dry and sapless. The lapping flames should have made speedy work of such a bush. But the thorn was not consumed; no branch or twig or leaf was even scorched or singed.

The visual object lesson was clear and concise. Though every normal indication argued for the annihilation of the thorn bush,

Though every normal indication argued for the annihilation of the thorn bush [Israel], it was miraculously and supernaturally preserved.

it was miraculously and supernaturally preserved. At that same moment, the Hebrew race was enslaved down in Egypt; stunted because of depravations; thorny, with no apparent value; in the crucible of fiery affliction. Every normal indication argued for extinction – but like the thorn bush, that people would be miraculously and supernaturally preserved.

And like the thorn bush, Jehovah will speak from the midst of her to the peoples of the world. That day is fast approaching.

After the Holocaust, the Jewish people recognized that they must have their own state, a homeland where they could forever be safe from the repetition of such horrors. Putting their trust in Western Civilization was never again going to be enough. Since then, Israel has had to fight numerous wars and partake in various military conflicts to ensure her very existence.

THE WARS OF MODERN ISRAEL

n War of Independence (1948-1949)

n Sinai War (1956)

n Six-Day War (1967)

n War of Attrition (1969-1970)

n Yom Kippur War (1973)

n Lebanon War (1982)

n 2nd Lebanon War (2006)

n Gaza War I (Operation Cast Lead) (2008-2009)

n Gaza Strip War (Operation Pillar of Defense) (2012)

n Gaza War II or (Operation Protective Edge) (2014)

n Israel-Palestine Crisis (Operation Guardian of the Walls) (May 2021)

IN ISRAEL’S DESIRE FOR PEACE, SHE WILL MAKE A COVENANT WITH A WORLD RULER WHO WILL GUARANTEE PEACE, BUT THIS WILL BE HER PRELUDE TO NEARDESTRUCTION.

The Peace Before THE

Samson defeated the enemies of Israel, but, in so doing, he forfeited his own life.

Unlike Samson, Israel, by God’s grace, will triumph over her enemies, and a remnant will survive in the end to experience God’s glorious peace.

On September 13, 1993, in a White House ceremony, America’s President and Secretary of State hosted an historic ceremony. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, representing Israel, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, representing the

Palestinians,signed a Declaration of Principles on interim Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The world looked on and, with few exceptions, called it a great triumph, a breakthrough after years of conflict, a courageous move toward peace.

Only a month earlier, Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were not even recognized by the United States. And, if Israel had the opportunity, her Mossad (the equivalent of our CIA) would have assassinated him or, at the least, tried him as a war crim-

A postage stamp honoring the agreement of Declaration of Principles of a self-governing Palestinian Government.

inal, guilty of the most heinous of crimes. Following the ceremony, however, before the world, he was being extolled as a great leader, a national hero, a peacemaker. Perfectly reflecting this topsy-turvy age, Arafat went on to win the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Perhaps the prophet Isaiah had a time like this in mind when he wrote:

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20).

What events brought the Palestine Liberation Organization into existence? What “strange” set of circumstances forced them to acknowledge the existence of the State of Israel, a people who were their mortal enemy for almost thirty years? Why did the thenIsraeli administration agree to negotiate with a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of countless thousands, and its leader, the greatest adversary of Israel since Adolph Hitler? And, most importantly, did these negotiations result in the hoped-for enduring peace?

Palestinian Background

In the months preceding Israel’s May of 1948 declaration of nationhood, many Palestinian Arabs chose, of their own volition, to abandon their homes and lands in what was eventually to become the State of Israel. Under the United Nations partition plan, they had the right of full citizenship in the new emerging State of Israel. However, under the influence of surrounding Arab nations, they were urged to leave their homes and travel the short distance to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The Arab armies, Palestinians were told, would invade Israel on the day she declared herself a nation. It would take a week, perhaps two, and the Jews would be driven into the Mediterranean Sea. The Arab victory was a foregone conclusion. The Palestinians could return to their homes and, as a bonus, possess their former Jewish neighbors’ homes as well.

But those who chose to leave and place themselves in opposition to the newly-born State of Israel soon found themselves in a situation they had not anticipated. The war was

not over in a week or two. A cease-fire with all invading armies was not reached until July 20, 1949 – more than a year after it had begun. And Israel, not the invading Arab nations, emerged victorious. Those who chose to remain in Israel (or their families) are there to this day, enjoying the benefits of citizenship and a standard of living far higher than that of surrounding Arab nations.

Two refugee populations arose as a result of the 1948-49 War of Independence, one Jewish and one Palestinian. About 800,000 Jews, who had lived for centuries within the surrounding Arab nations, found themselves following the war in what was now, for Jewish citizens, a hostile and dangerous environment. Notwithstanding the tremendous burden on the young nation, Israel somehow managed to absorb these disenfranchised Jewish people and weave them into the fabric of the Jewish state in the shortest possible time.

But, for the approximately equal number of 800,000 Arabs who had fled Israel to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the situation was far different. They were neither welcomed nor allowed to enter the surrounding Arab nations. Rather, they were kept in refugee camps (most frequently, mud huts) in poverty, for what would ultimately amount to nineteen years (1948-1967). These former Palestinians were deliberately used as political pawns by the Arabs at the United Nations. The Arab nations placed the cause of the Palestinian dislocation, difficulties, and poverty at the feet of the Jewish state. And these oft-repeated false accusations played well before third-world nations and those with anti-Semitic leanings. It has been calculated that one day’s oil revenue from the wealthy Middle East nations, who were not hesitant to spend billions on weapons of warfare, could have covered the cost of resettling all 800,000 of the dislocated Palestinians. But not one penny was forthcoming in all of the nearly two decades before 1967 – not from Saudi Arabia, not from Kuwait, not from any oil-rich Arab country. Genuine concern for their brethren was nonexistent. Israel absorbed its sons and daughters – the Arab countries did not.

It was the United Nations which provided humanitarian relief to the Palestinian refugees through all of those years, and about ninety

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Two refugee populations arose as a result of the 1948-49 War of Independence, one Jewish and one Palestinian.

About 800,000 Jews, who had lived for centuries within Arab nations, found themselves in what was now a hostile and dangerous environment. Israel managed to absorb these disenfranchised Jewish people.

The equal number of 800,000 Arabs, who had fled Israel, were neither welcomed nor allowed to enter the surrounding Arab nations. Rather, they were kept in refugee camps by the Arab nations.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was born in 1964. It was Yasser Arafat who vowed to destroy the Jewish state through terrorism and warfare directed almost exclusively against schools, children, and the defenseless.

These terrorists –some of whom had lived within what became the boundaries of Israel and had fled to the West Bank in 1948 and then crossed into Jordan in 1967 – now made their way to Lebanon in 1970.

percent of the tab was actually paid by the United States. For a people languishing in poverty and squalor – a people totally disenfranchised – it was easy to blame the Jews and the State of Israel for all of their problems.

BirTh of The PLo

Out of these circumstances, the Palestine Liberation Organization was born in 1964. It was Yasser Arafat who vowed to destroy the Jewish state through terrorism and war. Attacks by the PLO from the West Bank against Jewish settlements began in the mid-1960s and were directed almost exclusively against schools, children, and the defenseless.

However, in 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank in a counterattack against an invasion by the forces of King Hussein of Jordan. Those who had been engaged in terrorist activity against the Jewish state from within the West Bank now crossed the Jordan River and set up their base of operation in Jordan. From this new location they stepped up their activity, crossed into Israel to kill and terrorize, and then fled back across the Jordan River border for safety. However, the Jordanian border would provide no sanctuary. Israeli forces, carefully picking their time and methods, would enter Jordan to locate and destroy the terrorists’ bases of operation.

had fled to the West Bank in 1948 and then crossed into Jordan in 1967 – now made their way to Lebanon in 1970. Lebanon was a small country with a small army, composed of a number of differing ethnic groups, with a Muslim majority and a wealthy and influential “Christian” minority. Friction among these various groups had long festered. Nonetheless, Beirut had been a prosperous and beautiful city, the banking capital of the Arab world, and a favorite Middle East vacation destination on the Mediterranean Sea Coast.

Egypt and Syria pressured the Lebanese government to allow entrance of the PLO into their country once they had been driven from Jordan, because it served their purpose. And Saudi Arabia, said to be a “moderate” Arab nation, gladly provided the funds needed by Yasser Arafat to pay the salaries of his soldiers, purchase weapons, propagandize his cause through the liberal press, and launch terrorist raids into Israel and elsewhere. Arafat was also substantially aided by the former Soviet Union, both in terms of equipment and military advisers. Helping put pressure on Israel, and hence increasing instability in the Middle East, could, the U.S.S.R. concluded, diminish America’s influence in that part of the world.

King Hussein realized the PLO posed a grave threat to his kingdom. In 1970, he sent his army against PLO bases in his own land – 20,000 Palestinians were killed, and the rest were driven from Jordan.

As attacks against Israel continued to increase and as the PLO grew stronger, King Hussein realized the PLO posed a grave threat to his kingdom and sovereign rule. In 1970, he sent his army of highly trained and fiercely loyal legionnaires against PLO bases in his own land. More than 20,000 Palestinians were killed, and the rest were driven from Jordan. Because it was Muslim against Muslim, Arab against Arab, brother against brother, with Israel uninvolved, the massacre became known as “Black September.”

These terrorists – some of whom had lived within what became the boundaries of Israel and

The PLO moved troops into southern Lebanon as a strategic jump-off point for attacks against Israel’s northern populations. The attacks came via small boats along the Mediterranean coast, through infiltration across Israel’s northern border, and from within Lebanon itself, with Russianmade, Katyusha rocket launchers, which had a range of almost twenty miles and could reach population centers. After each attack, Israel would retaliate, exacting double payment from the perpetrators and pressing home the fact that they could not murder citizens of the sovereign State of Israel with impunity.

Nonetheless, by the mid-1970s, the PLO had become so powerful that it became its own nation within the nation of Lebanon. The PLO, feeling invincible and unaccountable, brutally killed moderate Lebanese leaders, raped young women, and kidnapped those who would not

cooperate with their policy. They thought nothing of forcibly using Lebanese people for blood transfusions for wounded PLO fighters until the “donor” died from lack of blood. Fanatical terrorist groups from all over the world began to train their operatives in Lebanon because of its favorable environment. And what remained of the Lebanese government and army were impotent to prevent it. Terrorism, anarchy, and confusion reigned supreme. In 1975-76, the PLO became the direct catalyst for a civil war in Lebanon.

In the civil war, upwards of 80,000 Lebanese people were killed. The world looked on and did nothing. France did nothing, even though Lebanon had been a protectorate of France and had enjoyed a close relationship, lest she upset the Arab world and jeopardize her access to oil. The papacy did nothing, although many of those who were being systematically killed were Roman Catholic, lest they incur the anger of the Muslim world. The United Nations did nothing, strongly influenced as it was by third-world nations who supported the PLO. The surrounding Arab nations did nothing, endorsing as they did the activity of the PLO. In fact, Syria had stationed troops in the Bekaa Valley of southeast Lebanon and contributed to much of the bloodshed, hoping to acquire a large portion of Lebanon for herself and open up a new military front against Israel. Even the press said relatively little about this massacre, always, however, finding occasions to condemn Israel for retaliatory raids directed against terrorists who had murdered her citizens.

Few in America realize that only Israel –largely for her own security purposes but also out of genuine humanitarianism – opened her borders to the sizeable “Christian” community of southern Lebanon who were trapped, cut off from the Christian community in Beirut, and in danger of massacre. The Israeli army provided doctors and medical care for the wounded, food for the hungry, jobs in northern Israel for the unemployed, military equipment for the Free Lebanese Army which had been formed by Major Saad Haddad (a former Lebanese army officer), and things as basic as phones to call family, and gasoline for their cars. These activities were carried on through an opening in a fence at the border, which the Lebanese Christians appropriately called

“The Good Fence.”

PreLude To War

The terrorists’ raids, frequently thwarted by the Israeli defense forces or the Free Lebanese Army, continued to escalate in number. The situation became intolerable for Israel. In March of 1978, the government launched operation “Litani,” a major military expedition into the south of Lebanon. Its limited objective was to wipe out PLO bases in that area and to restore security and normal life to Israel’s northern district.

Having quickly achieved its objective, Israel was pressured by the United Nations to withdraw from Lebanon with the promise that a limited “United Nations Interim Force” would be established in Lebanon to: (1) ensure Israel’s withdrawal, (2) restore peace and security to the area, and (3) ensure that no hostile activities were launched by the PLO against Israel. Only Israel’s withdrawal was accomplished. The United Nations forces failed completely in bringing peace and security to the region. And far from halting terrorist activity against Israel, they often “looked the other way” or absented themselves from an area to be infiltrated, allowing PLO terrorists to enter Israel to kill and to maim. Some United Nations forces from third-world nations actually aided the terrorists in their activity. Astoundingly, more than 700 terrorists were actually permitted to launch attacks against Israel from within the United Nations security zone itself. On May 15, 1981, the PLO shelled Israeli villages and settlements along the northern border. A total of 1,230 salvoes fell on twenty-six settlements. In addition to the considerable damage, six civilians were killed and fifty-nine wounded.

Four times Israel amassed its troops for a full-scale attack against the PLO in Lebanon, and four times they withdrew because of political issues and concern for world opinion. However, between July 24, 1981, and June 4, 1982, the PLO launched 290 attacks against Israel and Jewish interests abroad.

The 1982 War

The Israeli government could no longer forbear. At 11 a.m. on June 6, 1982, Israel launched

The terrorists’ raids continued to escalate in number. When the situation became intolerable, the Israeli government launched an expedition into the south of Lebanon. Its limited objective was to wipe out PLO bases to restore security and a normal life to Israeli citizens.

Having quickly achieved its objective, Israel was pressured by the United Nations to withdraw from Lebanon with the promise that a limited “United Nations Interim Force” would be established in Lebanon.

The United Nations forces failed completely in bringing peace and security to the region.

a combined land and sea assault against the PLO in Lebanon. About 70,000 troops, 1,240 tanks, 1,500 armored personnel carriers – a force roughly equivalent to six and onehalf divisions – participated in the invasion, including Israel’s navy and air force. The invasion was called “Peace for Galilee.”

Because of brutal treatment by the PLO ... the Israeli soldiers were literally welcomed as a liberating army, much like the Americans were when they entered Paris during World War II.

Israel knew the PLO was well armed, highly trained, anticipating the attack, and ready to launch ambushes all along the way. Israel did not know how the Syrians and other Arab nations might respond. Syrian forces were deeply entrenched in Lebanon. They had committed large numbers of infantry, a formidable tank force and armored vehicles, hundreds of the most up-todate Russian MiG fighter planes, and, in the Bekaa Valley, one of the most impressive groundto-air missile defenses ever built.

In six historic days, the Israeli forces advanced an astounding sixty miles in the face of blistering heavy fire of every possible kind and across terrain much of which had been thought militarily impassable. Beirut was surrounded and placed under siege. Because of treatment by the PLO in Christian East and North Beirut, the Israeli soldiers were literally welcomed as a liberating army, much like the Americans were when they entered Paris during the Second World War. And western Beirut became the final defensive enclave of the PLO in Lebanon.

In the surrounding areas, Israeli recovery and salvage units located 413 massive PLO underground ammunition and storage facilities. In them they found more than 5,000 tons of ammunition – enough to fill more than 1,500 military trucks. They also found 764 vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers; 26,900 light weapons; 424 artillery and rocket launchers; 1,295 communication devices; and 1,404 periscopes and field glasses. There was enough stored equipment to outfit a 30,000-man force, ten times the figure estimated by Israeli intelligence. It took the army more than a month, around the clock, to relocate the weaponry to Israel.

The Syrians had decided to enter the battle on June 7, the second day of the conflict. They

hoped to engage in a limited war and recapture the Golan Heights, which had been lost to Israel exactly fifteen years earlier in the Six-Day War of June 1967. They would pay dearly for their miscalculation. In five days of fierce fighting, they lost 385 tanks, including nine Russian T-72s, thought to be the most powerful tank in the world, and unstoppable. In three days of super-sophisticated aerial dog fights, the Syrians lost 90 planes without a single Israeli plane downed. Not since the Second World War had so many planes engaged in a dog fight in such a short period of time, and within such a restricted area. And in no other battle in aviation history has such a loss been borne entirely by one side.

Remote Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), twelve feet long and mounted with high magnification cameras, relayed pictures to ground stations and special electronically-equipped aircraft. The Syrians could keep no secrets from the Israeli “spy in the sky” reconnaissance. Jamming the Syrian radar screens electronically once they were located and launching laser-guided missiles from planes and surface batteries, the “impregnable” Syrian defense system was totally annihilated. This included the 700 anti-aircraft batteries whose purpose was to protect the missiles. (Of course, it was far more complex than it sounds.) This devastated the Russians, for this was their system, designed to protect their cities from the United States. Israel had, in effect, “chewed up and spit out” Russia’s most advanced ground-to-air missile defense system. As a result, on June 11, Syria accepted a cease-fire, hastily prepared by Philip Habib, special envoy from the United States.

The PLO continued to fight on, protected by the human civilian shields they forcibly kept around them in West Beirut. When Lebanese civilians tried to flee, they were shot. Finally, on August 12, knowing that all was lost, the PLO sent a message accepting the offer to withdraw to Arab nations, under Israeli conditions. They began their withdrawal from Lebanon on August 21, 1982. As they left Beirut, in a final gesture of defiance, they fired their automatic rifles and machine guns into the air. These literally thousands of rounds of ammunition had to come down somewhere – when they did, they killed 17 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and wounded 42.

An abandoned army watch post in the Golan Heights, Israel.

An old Israeli tank on the Golan Heights, Israel.

©istockphoto.com

©istockphoto.com

a Sudden Turnaround

The PLO was defeated, other terrorist groups packed up and went home, and the Syrian army was shocked and devastated. But,

in short order, PLO operatives infiltrated back from the Arab nations to which they had retreated and into positions from which they could once again launch acts of terror against Israel. Eleven years later they were still engaged in terrorism on Israel’s borders, and the intifida (rebellion, rock throwing, and killing) was a regular event in the occupied territories.

Then, on September 13, 1993, to the surprise of the world, the PLO and Israel, having been secretly negotiating, signed a “Declaration of Principles” intended to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This was done with the hopeful expectation that Jordan and Syria would soon after come to terms with Israel and bring peace to the area at long last.

What changed to bring Chairman Yasser Arafat to the peace table; to acknowledge Israel’s existence; to renounce his rhetoric calling for the destruction of the Jewish state? For those with eyes to see, his words will not be viewed as honorable or noble. There were four major reasons he chose to negotiate with Israel.

FIRST: He had lost all credibility and relevance among the Arab nations whose support he desperately needed.

SECOND: Other terrorist groups, such as Hamas, were arising, even more radical than the PLO, to whom Arafat was losing many of his leaders.

THIRD: Before the unraveling of the Soviet Union, Russia trained many of Arafat’s officers in the U.S.S.R., equipped his forces, and placed

instructors in the field. That assistance was now gone.

FOURTH: And perhaps most significantly, Arafat made a crucial tactical error. In the Gulf War of January/February 1990, he aggressively backed Saddam Hussein in the invasion of Kuwait, which preceded Hussein’s intended invasion of Saudi Arabia, except the United Nations military intervention defeated Hussein’s plan. Saudi Arabia had for years provided most of the funds for the PLO’s terrorist activity. Rightly feeling betrayed by Arafat, those funds dried up overnight. Chairman Arafat backed the wrong horse and bit the hand that literally fed him. He came to the peace table motivated by one impulse –self-survival. He was a thug and a murderer, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. The world, guided by pragmatic humanism, looked the other way, embraced him, and conferred upon him the attributes of “Peacemaker.”

But how did it come about that Israel, under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, came to negotiate with such a vile person? For however distasteful they found it (and they must have been beyond sick at heart), they did in fact come to the negotiation table. How is that to be understood?

FIRST: It was the Labor Party of Yitzhak Rabin which was in power. This is the more liberal of the two major political parties in Israel. Of the 120 members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), only sixty-one voted in support of the agreement with the PLO (one vote over 50 percent). And of the sixty-one, five were Arab-Israeli votes. Fifty-one voted against and eight abstained. By no measuring standard could it be said that the support ran deep or wide within the nation for the agreement.

SECOND: Recognizing that Yasser Arafat was in a position of weakness – holding onto power by his fingernails – and observing an increase in extreme fundamentalism within the Arab world that would one day erupt into a holy war if the Arab/Israeli conflict were not ended, Israeli leaders viewed negotiations with Arafat as the lesser of two evils.

Arafat made a tactical crucial error. ... he aggressively backed Saddam Hussein in the invasion of Kuwait, which preceded Hussein’s intended invasion of Saudi Arabia.

How did it come about that Israel, under the leadership of Rabin and Peres, came to negotiate with such a vile person?

For however distasteful they found it (and they must have been beyond sick at heart), they did in fact come to the negotiation table.

The PLO began their withdrawal from Lebanon on August 21, 1982. after agreeing to the Israeli conditions.

©corbis.com

Shimon Peres Yitzhak Rabin Yasser Arafat

THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS

The Abraham Accords are a series of statements initially made between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain that normalized relations as of September 15, 2020. With the agreement, the UAE and Bahrain both recognized Israel’s sovereignty, enabling full diplomatic relations. Soon after, Sudan and Morocco joined the accords.

One of the major components of the Accords is to encourage secular and religious tourism between Israel and the UAE. But foremost, Israel will partner with the UAE to revolutionize the transporting of oil throughout the Middle East – creating an economic partnership that could dramatically transform the region. As a result, Israel could become a new global center of energy transport and trade.

The U.S. Administration seeks to expand the Accords to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. views normalization between the two as an issue of U.S. national security.

From a biblical perspective, the Accords could be moving the world closer to the time of the end – setting the stage for the emergence of the Antichrist and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

THIRD: Israel had been worn down, not so much physically, but emotionally and psychologically. In her modern history since 1948, she had fought many wars and dealt with persistent, unending terrorism directed against her people. Many of her young men have been killed, her treasury disproportionately used for military purposes, her intellect channeled into national security projects, and her very existence sometimes in the balance. Constantly opposed by the United Nations (whose very existence is a farce), economically boycotted by nations and corporations (who value Arab oil more than Jewish blood), frequently attacked and misrepresented in the world press (which routinely prostitutes itself), she had just grown tired.

Worn down and exhausted, some became willing to give land for peace, to gamble with the nation’s future, to recognize the PLO and negotiate with Yasser Arafat. I believe history will one day record that her gamble was a singularly tragic error.

a SPiriTuaL confLicT

The conflict between Islam and Israel is not economic, political, or geographical; the conflict is spiritual. The fact that a Jewish state exists in a land which from the seventh century until the nineteenth century (with but a brief, partial interlude during the Crusades) belonged to Islam is like a bone in the throat that cannot be extricated. Compromising, by giving land for peace, is seen as weakness and returning all or part of the Golan Heights to Syria is viewed as foolishness. The collective Arab armies could not defeat the army of Israel on the battlefield; but having worn Israel down, they were winning a major campaign through negotiation – a platform from which to better launch an attack against Israel during a more opportune day.

The Palestinians had been given the West Bank and Gaza in increments, a little at a time over the course of several years – the Gaza Strip, Jericho, Hebron, a little here, a little there – most handed over due to world pressure.

In due course, the status of Jerusalem will come up in terms that can no longer be dismissed. Israel calls Jerusalem her “Eternal Capital.” The lieutenants of Israel’s Palestinian

enemies are vociferously claiming East Jerusalem (which is currently part of the West Bank), to be the capital of the emerging Palestinian state. Since 1993, Palestinian flags have been seen flying in East Jerusalem.

Those who suggest Israel will never allow Jerusalem to be divided need to be reminded that just a few decades ago no one in Israel would ever have believed that the PLO would be recognized or negotiations carried on with Yasser Arafat. The pressure placed on Israel by the nations of the world to keep the so-called peace process moving ahead has been almost irresistible. And inseparably connected to the Jerusalem issue, like a newborn connected by an umbilical cord to its mother, is the issue of the Temple Mount. For Islam, the Mount is its third most holy site after Mecca and Medina. On the Temple Mount is the Dome of the Rock, which, according to Muslim tradition, is the spot from which Muhammad briefly ascended into Heaven and returned; lest he be outdone by the “actual” ascension of Christ from the Mount of Olives. Nearby stands the Al Aqsa Mosque, a Muslim holy place of worship.

For the Jews, the Temple Mount is revered as the spot to which Father Abraham came to offer Isaac; the place where King David defeated the wicked Jebusites, built his capital, and called it Jerusalem (the City of Peace); and the place where his son, Solomon, built the Temple (house) for God; the place where the priests of Israel performed their tasks as mandated in the Mosaic Law, and sinners found acceptance before God; the place where Jews worshipped for 1,500 years, long before Islam was born in the deserts of Arabia in the fifth century A.D.

Where history is heading

Astoundingly, humanity’s quest for peace (apart from God) will take it to the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, and a thirty-six acre plateau called the Temple Mount, just north of the Sinai Desert, along the ancient Patriarchal Highway leading from Egypt to Assyria.

It is at this point we can only speculate. It could be that, like the city, the Temple Mount will be divided, perhaps with a wall running east and west. The Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque will remain places of Islamic

worship. To the north, on the other side of the wall, perhaps in line with the Eastern Gate, a modest Temple – already being designed by the Temple Institute in the Old City – will be hastily erected. Animal sacrifices, halted by the Romans more than 1,900 years ago, will be reinstituted. This may come about by tremendous pressure placed on Israel to make concessions and powerful promises given to her of security and peace – all by one who will govern a coalition of ten nations.

How close are we to the end of the age? How close are we to seeing the introduction of the Antichrist? Are the Abraham Accords signed between Israel and her historic enemies the forerunners of the covenant referred to by the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27)? Perhaps. Does what is happening at present between Israel and her neighbors have importance prophetically? This appears to be the case. It is helping put the pieces into place for the beginning of the climactic events of history. This will include a major invasion of Israel by the surrounding nations to whom Israel is now giving strategic, militarily-significant land areas.

Soon, the curtain will go up and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will gallop onto the stage of human history. Only, it will not be a drama – it will be real life! Through the prophet Zechariah, God said:

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 be gathered together against it (Zechariah 12:2-3).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the still point in a changing world. Only through faith in Him and obedience to His Word can men be prepared to face the onslaught of horrific events that will soon take place in Jerusalem. The devastating consequences will be felt around the world until the Son of Righteousness appears with healing in His wings. Only then will Israel’s long search for shalom (peace) become a reality in the earth.

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Closing in on the end

In the end, Israel will be victorious through her Messiah. However, the route to get there will be lined with minefields and ambushes.

It is extremely difficult to be dogmatic regarding Israel’s shortterm future. However, there is a solid basis for proposing the following sequence of events.

Sometime soon a caliphate will arise. This collection of Muslim nations will be led by a caliph – a supreme leader who will wield great religious and political power. He will step forward to offer a palatable solution to the Middle East conflict that will appease both Israel and her neighbors. This caliph – whom we believe will be the Antichrist – will enter into a covenant with Israel, a pact which the Bible describes as a “covenant with death” and “with hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18; see also Daniel 9:27).

Why, however, will many within Israel make a covenant with the Arab/Muslim world? And, why would the Arab/Muslim world enter into a covenant with Israel? Regarding the latter, though they possess a tremendous population advantage, the Arab/Muslim world knows that Israel has superior military and nuclear capabilities. The Arab/Muslim world also knows that if it goes to war with Israel, it will be devastated; its losses will be astronomical – even if it wins the war. The same holds true for Israel. Even if she were to win such a conflict, she knows that she, too, will suffer cataclysmic loss. But even beyond this, Israel, after 75 years of wars and terrorist attacks, is weary of fighting and wants peace at almost any price.

With this in mind, an Arab/Muslim caliphate – headed by the Antichrist – will negotiate a peace with Israel. Israel will have no idea with whom she is dealing and will be totally caught off-guard when the Caliph/Antichrist breaks his peace agreement with Israel at its mid-point (See Daniel 9:27).

The Antichrist will then “plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas [the Mediterranean Sea and Dead Sea] in the glorious holy mountain [Jerusalem]” (Daniel 11:45). Then he will suddenly bring to a halt the reinstated Jewish sacrificial system and replace it with an image of himself. He will demand that the people of the world show allegiance to him by taking his mark.

It will be Israel’s darkest hour – referred to as “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) and by the Lord as “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21) – as the nations will come against her (Zechariah 14:2), and she will be persecuted to the brink of extinction. At the 12th hour, when all hope seems lost, her God will come to the rescue: “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle … And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem [Israel] shall be safely inhabited” (Zechariah 14:3, 11).

Until that time, you are encouraged to embrace the words of Psalm 122:6: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

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