Originally
Posted 13 Sep 2010 but Updated 25 Sep 2010 and 10 Sep 2012.
Page 15
Edited Section 10 Sep 2012 (in bold)
Please read the following newer link in conjunction with this article as it reinforces that God IS blessing Israel. Click here for: "Has God Finished With The Jews And The Nation Of Israel?"
Present Day Israel Is A Nation Of Miracles, Created By God. The Overwhelming Facts!
I was given this free booklet for distribution purposes and would like to share it with you. It is truly an
amazing book which gives overwhelming facts proving how God's hand is upon the Land Of Israel and the amazing miracles that have happened. The link to this booklet is:
www.bible411.com/bookletoffer/IsraelANationOfMiracles.pdf
However, it may be difficult for you to download as it may require registration. So I copy/paste the whole contents here as follows:
Page 15
Edited Section 10 Sep 2012 (in bold)
Please read the following newer link in conjunction with this article as it reinforces that God IS blessing Israel. Click here for: "Has God Finished With The Jews And The Nation Of Israel?"
Present Day Israel Is A Nation Of Miracles, Created By God. The Overwhelming Facts!
I was given this free booklet for distribution purposes and would like to share it with you. It is truly an
amazing book which gives overwhelming facts proving how God's hand is upon the Land Of Israel and the amazing miracles that have happened. The link to this booklet is:
www.bible411.com/bookletoffer/IsraelANationOfMiracles.pdf
However, it may be difficult for you to download as it may require registration. So I copy/paste the whole contents here as follows:
At the bottom of this
booklet I have included some videos which also show the miracle of the Land.
Here is the amazing recent history of Israel (which includes many fulfilled
Bible prophecies concerning the Land) as follows:
ISRAEL A NATION OF MIRACLES
A Half-Century of Miracles
ISRAEL A NATION OF MIRACLES
A Half-Century of Miracles
The new born state of Israel was 50 years old in 1998. What a 50 years!
To start with—the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948 was a miracle of
history (Ezek.37:1-11; Luke 21:29,30). Never before has a nation been
destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two
thousand years later, re-gathered to their homeland and reestablished as a nation.
When Israel declared itself an independent state on May 14, 1948, still
another miracle occurred. The armies of seven
Arab nations marched on the newborn State, boasting that they would “push the
Jews into the sea.” Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders
but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan.
Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse
explanation of Israel’s victory. “It was a miracle!”
Five Examples
of Miracles
A Syrian column of 200 armored vehicles— including 45 tanks—attacked
Degania, the oldest
kibbutz in Israel. What a psychological blow this defeat would be!
Without artillery, Jewish forces were helpless to block the Syrian advance.
Until then the only heavy weapons available in all Israel were four howitzers
of the type used by the French army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Two of
these ancient fieldpieces were promptly dismantled and rushed to Degania. The
local commander, Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Dayan, had them reassembled at the
very moment the first Syrian tanks rumbled through the kibbutz perimeter, and
they scored a hit on the advance tank. Had the Syrians known that these two
obsolete weapons represented half the arsenal of fieldguns in all Israel, they
would have pressed the attack. Instead, the armored vehicles swung around
in their tracks and clattered back up the mountain road.
At Safed, near the Sea of Galilee a small unit of Israeli defenders were
holding off thousand Arabs. A sudden tropical storm broke loose. The Israelis
in desperation took their remaining gasoline, poured it over 50 empty
drums, set them afire and rolled them down the hill. The flaming barrels flying
down the slopes, the rumble of hollow barrels striking rocks—together with the
tropical storm—created such an illusion that the bewildered Arabs imagining
some sort of secret weapon took to their heel and fled.
In December 1948, the Egyptians were harassing Israeli settlements in
the Negev while advanced columns were moving north. Yadin used the Bible for
strategy. It mentioned an ancient road forgotten for centuries, which ran
lmost directly to Mushrafa, the Egyptians’ central garrison. Heavy boulders
were pushed aside with bulldozers. Soldiers in armored vehicles, jeeps and
supply trucks sped under cover of darkness along the ancient road and surprised
the Egyptians. Taking this garrison destroyed the Egyptian defense system and
ended the war 14 days later.
To liberate the airport at Lydda the tactics of Gideon were employed.
Seven thousand Arab
troops were ready to attack. Sixteen Israelis dressed as Arabs
infiltrated into the city of Lydda. Like Gideon’s band of 300 they made such a
commotion during the night that the Arabs, totally confused, fired upon each
other. Finally the majority fled back across the border. The Syrian Army had
regrouped east of the Galilee. A Jewish column of 24 homemade armored trucks
and cars, on the way to relieve a besieged Kibbutz, took the wrong road and
crossed the border into Lebanon. Before they discovered their mistake, they ran
head-on into a column of supplies for the Syrian Army in Galilee—dozens of
trucks of ammunition, a string of light artillery and 20 new armored cars. The
Israelis fired point blank at the first truck—a tanker loaded with
gasoline. It exploded and set on fire the following truckload of hand grenades.
Rapid repeating explosions were heard for miles around.
Terrified, the Syrians abandoned their cargo. The Israelis scarcely had
enough men to drive the captured supply train back into Galilee. Finally they
reached the beleaguered Kibbutz, only to learn that the Arab besiegers heard
rumors that the Jewish army had invaded Lebanon,
therefore, the Arabs fled Israel.
The victory of the 1948 War was a big miracle composed of a series of
little miracles. Why? Over 2500 years ago the prophet Isaiah made a remarkable
prophecy concerning Israel regathered back in her land. “They
that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought…for I will
help thee.” (41:12,13).
The Bible
Helped Build Israel
The miracles continued. Trees, fruits and vegetables grow over what was
once shifting sandy
wastes or malaria swamps. New industries fringe historic cities.
Highways and pipelines stretch across a energetic nation that had slept for
centuries. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s dynamic first Prime Minister, was an
ardent student of the Bible as an accurate history of Israel and its land. He
dispatched engineers, horticulturists, botanists, etc., with the Bible in one
hand and research tools in the other. Miracles happened!
Following Bible clues, copper and iron mines were established. One
mining engineer, Abraham Dor observed that at the richest veins of copper —“we
come upon the slag and furnaces of ancient Israel. We often get the feeling
that someone has just left.” Deuteronomy 8:7-9 was often framed on the walls of
mining offices:
Reclaiming
the Wasteland
Barren land transformed to the fertility of ancient Israel is a miracle
predicted in Scripture
(Amos 9:14-15; Ezek. 36:34-35). It was long assumed that most of Palestine
was wasteland,
irreclaimable for agriculture. But archaeologists discovered the
presence of more than 70 ancient settlement sites in one 65-mile stretch of the
Jordan Valley alone, each with its own well for water. Lot, over 3,000 years
ago, was not exaggerating when he “lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain
of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord”
(Gen.13:10). New agricultural settlements—from Dan to Beersheba—have risen
beside ancient sites reidentified by Biblical archaeologists. Concrete pumping
stations were set over ancient springs or wells. A well from Abraham’s day, now
supplies water for residents on the outskirts of Beersheba.
One of the basic necessities in that arid country is reforestation. Ever
since Jews began
returning, they have been planting forests, naming them in honor of such
leaders and friends of Israel as Chaim Weizmann, Lord Balfour, George V and
scores of others. The Bible has helped them decide what kind of trees to plant
and where to plant them. Debating whether a certain barren hillside would be a
suitable location for Israel’s immense “Forest of Martyrs,”
Israelis found the answer in Joshua, which proved that a forest had
existed there. “Knowing that trees grow more easily where trees have flourished
before,” explained Professor Zohary of Hebrew University, “we rely on the Good
Book.” “The first tree Abraham put in the soil of
Beersheba was a tamarisk,” said Israel’s outstanding authority on
reforestation, Dr. Joseph
Weitz. “Following his lead, we put out two million in the same area.
Abraham was right. The tamarisk is one of the few trees we have found that
thrives in the south where yearly rainfall is less than six inches.”
The writer personally knew the Boyko Family who pioneered in developing
Biblical principles of agriculture that helped the Aravah and the Negev
blossom as a rose. The Bible made Israel the agricultural giant it is today
exporting its products worldwide. It took another miracle to make this possible.
In Bible times there were two copious rainy seasons in Palestine—the “early and
the latter rain.” But for the past many centuries the “early
rain” has been minimal while the “latter rain” and dew have disappeared
completely. Since 1878, the “latter rain” is falling again. The precipitation
of both has spiraled over the decades just as predicted in Joel 2:23,24.
The Miracle
of Immigration
Jews from the four points of the compass heard the call to come home
(Isa. 43:5,6). Israel’s
Declaration of Independence stated that Israel “will be open to the
immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion.” Even as war still
raged and the little State faced possible destruction or bankruptcy, the
newcomers poured in. During the first three years of statehood,
the average reached 18,000 a month and in some months the figure
exceeded 30,000.
Between May 15, 1948, and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the
country doubled. By the end of 1956, Israel’s population had nearly tripled,
reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the economic shock of absorption! Jews kept pouring
into Israel over the decades. In 1984 - 1985 and again in 1991 harrowing
airlifts brought Ethiopian Jews from utter despair to a Land
of hope. Finally, the long-expected prophetic fulfillment of Jews from
Russia began in 1991. By 1998 over 800,000 have returned from the former Soviet
Republics (CIS) and they are still coming. Over a million are expected.
Israel’s population increased from 650,000 in 1948 to nearly 6,000,000 in 1998.
The miracle of absorption continues.
The Miracle
of the ’67 War
The Arabs boasted that they would destroy Israel. However, in six days
Israel overran the
combined forces of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East
Jerusalem, the West Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai—one of the greatest
military feats in history. To many Orthodox Jews worldwide, especially in the
United States, it was a wake-up call from God. Thousands poured into Israel and
settled in Samaria and Judea to stake Israel’s eternal claim to the so-called
West Bank—the heartland of Israel. They are certain the Messianic Age is near
at hand. As Biblical Zionists, they oppose any give-away of land in
the peace process.
A Hi-Tech
Leader
Ezekiel 38:12, 13 predicts that Israel will become an economic envy of
the nations. The
immigration of Russian Jews is literally paying off. This year has
witnessed an explosion in both hi-tech developments and the number of contracts
Israeli hi-tech companies have signed with manufacturers worldwide. Prime
Minister Netanyahu said, “The failure of Soviet communism to capitalize on the
outstanding R & D skills of the Russian Jews was a stroke of good fortune
for Israel. We now have the highest per capita of scientists in the world. This
has
put Israel on the cutting edge of technology.” The New York Stock
Exchange lists more hi-tech companies from Israel than any other nation…
Ezekiel also predicts the sanctification of God’s name when Israel’s enemies
would threaten His people (38:16-23).
50 Year
Anniversary
Actually Israel’s miracles began in 1878 with the regathering of the
Jewish people to their Land. Ironically the PLO also celebrated its own 50-year
anniversary from 1948. The Palestinians have several names for their
anniversary. One is “50 years of catastrophe!” Two people claim the one land is
theirs. Who is right? Who are the Palestinians?
Whose Land?
The Biblical Claim
Whose Land?
The Biblical Claim
The prophet Jeremiah 16:14-18 speaks of Israel receiving a “double of punishment” before they are regathered to their Land (16:14-18). This double would be a period equal to their prior period of favor with God. Jeremiah also observed that during this double of punishment the Land of Israel would become relatively desolate of man and beast (33:10-16).
The
Palestinian Claim
PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat in his speech before the UN in 1974 declared,
“The Jewish
invasion began in 1881... Palestine was then a verdant area, inhabited
mainly by an Arab people in the course of building its life and dynamically
enriching its indigenous culture.”
Financed by the oil rich Arab States, Arafat has conducted a worldwide
propaganda campaign
to convince the world community that the Holy Land has for centuries
sustained a thriving
Palestinian culture. What happens when this claim is compared with the
personal observations of the following recognized authorities? In 1738 Thomas
Shaw observed a land of barrenness... from want of inhabitants.”1
In 1785 Constantine Francois de Volney recorded the population of the
three main cities. Jerusalem had a population of 12,000 to 14,000. Bethlehem
had about 600 able-bodied men. Hebron had 800 to 900 men.2
In 1835 Alphonse de Lamartine wrote, “Outside the city of Jerusalem, we
saw no living object, heard no living sound…a complete eternal silence reigns
in the town, in the highways, in the country…. The tomb of a whole people.”3
In 1857, the British consul in Palestine, James Finn, reported, “The
country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its
greatest need is that of a body of population.” This historic observation is a
remarkable confirmation of the Biblical predictions that during Israel’s
“double” period of time of punishment and dispersion, the Lord would cause the
Land to become desolate of man and beast (Jeremiah 33:10; Zechariah 10:12;
Jeremiah 16:14-18). No wonder by 1857 it was just waiting for “a body of
population!”4
In the Lord’s providence this needed body of population-the Jewish
people-began to return after 1878 at the end of their Scriptural period of His
disfavor. The most popular quote on the desolation of the Land is from Mark
Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1867), “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes.
Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered
its energies….Palestine is desolate and unlovely…. It is a hopeless, dreary,
heartbroken land.”
The records of history confirm the Biblical predictions that during the
Jewish dispersion and
“double” of God’s disfavor, the Land of Israel would become desolate
awaiting the return of the Jewish people when its period of disfavor ended in
1878. The records of history simply do not confirm today’s Palestinian claim of
Palestinian roots and culture in a “verdant area” since the Arab rule of the
land (A.D. 640-1099).
1 Thomas Shaw, travels and observations (Oxford: Printed at the
Theatre, 1738).
2 Volney, travels through syria and egypt.
3 Alphonse De Lamartine, RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EAST (Philadelphia:
Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1838).
4 British Foreign Office Documents 78/1294, Pol. No. 36.
Southern
Syria Vs. “Palestine”
The Romans had changed the name of the Land of Israel to “Palestine.”
From A.D. 640 until the 1960s, Arabs referred to this same Land as “Southern
Syria.” Arabs only started calling the Land “Palestine” in the 1960s. Until
about the eighteenth century, the Christian world called this same Land, “The
Holy Land.” Thereafter, they used two names: “The Holy Land” and “Palestine.”
When the League of Nations in 1922 gave Great Britain the mandate to
prepare Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people, the official name
of the Land became “Palestine”—and remained so until the rebirth of the Israeli
State in 1948. During this very period, the leaders of the Arabs in the Land,
however, called themselves Southern Syrians and clamored that the Land become a
part of a “Greater Syria.” This “Arab Nation” would include Syria, Lebanon,
Iraq, Transjordan as well as Palestine. An observation in Time magazine well
articulated how the Palestinian identity was born so belatedly in the 1960s:5
Golda Meir once argued that there was no such thing as a Palestinian; at
the time, she wasn’t entirely wrong. Before Arafat began his proselytizing,
most of the Arabs from the territory of Palestine thought of themselves as
members of an all-embracing Arab nation. It was Arafat who made the
intellectual leap to a definition of the Palestinians as a distinct people; he
articulated the cause, organized for it, fought for it and brought it to the
world’s attention….
If there was an Arab Palestinian culture, a normal population increase
over the centuries would have been expected. But with the exception of a
relatively few families, the Arabs had no attachment to the Land. If Arabs from
southern Syria drifted into Palestine for economic reasons, within a generation
or so the cultural tug of Syria or other Arab lands would pull them back. This
factor is why the Arab population average remained low until the influx of
Jewish financial investments and Jewish people in the late 1800s made the Land
economically attractive. Then sometime between 1850 and 1918, the Arab
population shot up to 560,000.
Not to absolve the Jews but to defend British policy, the not
overfriendly British secretary of state for the colonies Malcolm MacDonald,
declared in the House of Commons (November 24, 1938), “The Arabs cannot say
that the Jews are driving them out of the country. If not a single Jew had come
to Palestine after 1918, I believe the Arab population of Palestine would still
have been around 600,000…”6
Jewish contributions and Jewish immigration continued to flow into the
Land. The Jews
created industry, agriculture, hospitals—a complete socioeconomic
infrastructure. As job
opportunities increased, so did Arab immigration. In fact, in 1939
President Roosevelt observed that “Arab immigration into Palestine since 1921
has vastly exceeded the total Jewish immigration during this whole period.”7
For one specific example, in 1934 between 30,000 and 36,000 Arabs from
the Hauran Province in Syria left for “the better life” in Palestine.8
On the other hand, Great Britain’s White Paper of 1939 closed the doors
of Jewish immigration to their Land. Simultaneously, there was a large-scale
Arab immigration to the new Land of opportunity during World War II.9
In 1946 Bartley C. Crum, a United States Government observer, noted that
tens of thousands of Arabs had entered Palestine because of this better
life–and they were still coming.10
5 TIME, January 3, 1994
6 Irving Howe and Carl Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE
MIDDLE EAST (New York: Quadrangle Press, 1972), p. 178.
7 “Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers.”
8 LEAGUE OF NATIONS PUBLICATIONS, V.I.A. MANDATES, 1935, 27th
Session.
9 UNRWA Reviews, Infor. Paper No. 6.
10 Anny Latour, THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL (Cleveland: World,
1968), p. 318.
The Testimony
of Arabs and Christians
Because Arabs until the 1960s spoke of Palestine as Southern Syria or
part of Greater Syria,
in 1919 the General Syrian Congress stated, “We ask that there should be
no separation of the southern part of Syria, known as Palestine.”11
In 1939 George Antonius noted the Arab view of Palestine in 1918:12
Faisal’s views about the future of Palestine did not differ from those
of his father and were
identical with those held then by the great majority of
politically-minded Arabs. The
representative Arab view was substantially that which King Husain [Grand
Sherif of Mecca, the
great grandfather of the current King Hussein of Jordan] had expressed
to the British
Government…in January 1918. In the Arab view, Palestine was an Arab
territory forming an
integral part of Syria.
Referring to the same Arab view of Palestine in 1939, George Antonius
spoke of “the whole of the country of that name [Syria] which is now split up
into mandated territories…”13
His lament was that France’s mandate over Syria did not include
Palestine which was under Britain’s mandate. As late as May 1947, Arab
representatives reminded the United Nations in a formal statement, “Palestine
is a… part of the Province of Syria…. Politically, the Arabs of Palestine were
not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity.”14
On May 31, 1956, Ahmed Shukairy had no hesitation, as current head of
the Palestine Liberation Organization, in announcing to the Security Council
the observation, “It is
common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.”15
Syrian President Hafez Assad once told PLO leader Yassir Arafat:16
You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one
point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian People, there is no Palestinian
entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people,
Palestine is an integral part of Syria.
Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true
representatives of the Palestinian people. Assad stated on March 8, 1974,
“Palestine is a principal part of Southern Syria, and we consider that it is
our right and duty to insist that it be a liberated partner of our Arab
homeland and of Syria.”17
In the words of the late military commander of the PLO as well as member
of the PLO Executive Council, Zuhair Muhsin:18
There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and
Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that
we carefully underline our Palestinian identity.…yes, the existence of a
separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a
Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against
Israel [emphasis ours].
The following are significant observations by Christians of the Arabs in
Palestine in the 1800s:19
The Arabs themselves, who are its inhabitants, cannot be considered but
temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built
their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since
they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind
that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving
behind them any sign of their passage through it.
Stephen Olin, D.D., L.L.D., called one of the most noted of American
theologians-after his extensive travels in the Middle East-wrote of the Arabs
in Palestine “…with slight exceptions they are probably all descendants of the
old inhabitants of Syria.”20
The most authoritative Arab statement, however, as to whom the Holy Land
belongs is
found in the Koran, the Islamic Scriptures:21
The fact is that the Koran agrees with the Bible that God (Allah) made a
covenant with the Sons of Israel and assigned the Holy Land to the Jews (See
the Koran, Sura V, “The Table”). The Koran also describes the land given to the
Jews as “blessed” and foresees a return of Israel to their land at the end of
days. These testimonies confirm the Christian Scriptures that God gave the
Land to the Jewish people as an everlasting possession. The relatively few
Arabs who wandered into the Land between A.D. 670-1878 were but temporary
dwellers. The truer perspective of history reveals that the large recent influx
of Arabs that paralleled the regathering of Jews has no historic rootage in the
Land.
11 Michael Curtis, Ed. THE PALESTINIANS: PEOPLE, HISTORY, POLITICS
(New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1975).
12 George Antonius, THE ARAB AWAKENING: THE STORY OF THE ARAB
NATIONAL MOVEMENT
(Philadelphia: 1939).
13 Ibid.
14 Howe and Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST.
15 Ibid., p. 178.
16 Kamal Jumblatt, I SPEAK FOR LEBANON (London: Zed Press, 1982).
17 Ibid.
18 TROUW [Daily Newspaper, Netherlands], March 31, 1977.
19 Felix Bovet, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenecia: A Visit To Sacred
Lands (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1882).
20 Stephen Olin, TRAVELS THROUGH SYRIA AND
EGYPT (New York: Harper & Bros., 1851).
21 Elliot Green, Jerusalem Post, June 11, 1994, p. 6.
The Verdict
of History: Land Rights
Before Jewish immigration and Jewish investments spawned massive Arab
immigration,
Arabs were actually leaving Palestine. Then the flow of traffic
reversed. “…Palestine changed from a country of Arab emigration to one of Arab
immigration. Arabs from the Hauran in Syria as well as other neighboring lands
poured into Palestine to profit from the higher standard of living and fresh
opportunities provided by the Zionist pioneers.”22
This phenomenon is confirmed by the Palestine Royal Commission Report
which observed that in the period between the Balfour Declaration and the
United Nations Partition Resolution of 1947, Palestine became a land of Arab
immigration.23
As further documented by Ernst Frankenstein, substantial Arab
immigration was a recent phenomenon:24
The early “lovers of Zion” began the stimulation of Arab immigration.
Some writers have come out with the conclusion that in 1942, 75 percent of the
Arab population were either immigrants or descendants of immigrants into
Palestine during the preceding one hundred years, mainly after 1882.
Indeed, the verdict of history does more than confirm the Prophets that
the population of the Land of Israel would be minimal until the “double” of
Israel’s disfavor ended in 1878 when the regathering of the Jewish exiles began
(Jeremiah 33:10; Zechariah 10:12 and Jeremiah 16:14-18).
The record of history testifies that the great influx of Arabs also
began after that date. These facts of history explain why the United Nations
needed to develop a definition that a “Palestinian Refugee” is any Arab who had
been in “Palestine” for only two years.25
This U.N. definition, in fact, is incompatible with the assumption that
the Arab Palestinian roots go back one or two thousand years. The Jews
themselves have dominated the Land called “Palestine” for the past two
millennia. The Jews themselves are as much “Palestinian” as the Arabs who claim
to be Palestinians. If any population has a right to the name Palestinian (if
they wanted it), it would be the Jews whose ancestors had their Land renamed
“Palestine.”
22 Howe and Gershman, Ed., ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST,
p. 178.
23 "London: His Majesty's Stationary Office," Chapter 10,
1937.
24 Ernst Frankenstein, JUSTICE FOR MY PEOPLE (London: Nicholson
& Watson, [1943]), p. 130.
25 Joan Peters, TIME IMMEMORIAL (New York: Harper & Rowe,
1984), p. 4.
The Nation’s Partitioned God’s Land
“When I bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all
nations… I will plead with them there for my people
and for my heritage Israel, whom
they have scattered among the nations, and parted
my land.” Joel 3:1,2
With the ending of God’s “double” of disfavor and punishment, God takes
issue with the nations responsible for hounding and scattering “my people.” Now
during God’s regathering of the Jews by Divine Providence since 1878 to “my
Land,” He also takes issue with the fact that the nations have “parted My
Land”—His Land. How have the nations “partitioned” His Land?
World War I was the second significant event in end-time prophecy
regarding the regathering of Israel. Turkey, with an expansive empire that
compassed the Middle East (including Palestine) and North Africa, fought with
Germany and the Central Powers against the Allies. At the breaking up of the
Turkish Empire by the victorious Allies, both Jews and Arabs requested
independent states. The world powers were generous in the extreme to the Arabs
by granting them twenty-two independent Arabs states—encompassing 5,414,000
square miles. The Jews asked for less than one percent of that vast territory.
The Allies agreed to this request (which included both sides of the Jordan) in
the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1920 San Remo Conference of World Powers.
For imperialistic interests, however, in 1921 Great Britain reneged on
the Balfour Declaration, lopped off 77 percent of the Land promised in the
Balfour Declaration and set up the Arab Emirate of Transjordan. Then in 1922
the League of Nations gave Great Britain a Mandate to prepare the remaining 23
percent of Palestine (including Samaria, Judea, Gaza, Golan Heights and Eastern
Jerusalem) for a Jewish National Home. But under French pressure, in 1923 the
Golan Heights was ceded by the British to the French mandate of Syria.26
They partitioned His Land and the Lord was angry.
26 Martin Gilbert, ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT, (London: Weidenfeld &
Nocolson, 1992), p. 8.
Oil Diplomacy
Oil was then discovered in the Arab countries. Consequently, “oil
diplomacy” was instituted.
British foreign policy simply bowed to Arab appeasement. In 1939 the
British White Paper
banned further immigration to Palestine. Also, with brutal callousness,
the United States and most nations refused to accept the beleaguered Jews of
Europe. Consequently, six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. How
many millions of these hapless victims
would have found a haven in Palestine if Britain had not reneged—with
the silent consent of the other nations of the world—on its own mandate obligations
by banning Jewish immigration?
What a heinous collective crime of history! Lloyd George, who was the
Prime Minister of Great Britain, when he issued the Balfour Declaration went on
national radio to call the 1939 British White paper, “an act of national
perfidy which will dishonor the name of Britain.” 27
This time the nations actually denied the Jews any
of God’s Land and the Lord was angry.
Finally, the Gentile nations, guilt-ridden after defaulting on their
promise since 1922, felt a moral obligation to grant the Jews an independent
state. But, unfortunately, the UN Partition Plan of 1947 further reduced the
size of the new Israeli State.
They partitioned “My Land” and the Lord was angry…
When Israel became an independent State in 1948, armies from six Arab
nations invaded the newborn State. Outnumbered 100 to one, Israel’s ragtag army
pushed back the invaders and took more of its rightful Land. Divine Providence
was telling the world something about whose Land it is. The only failure in
Israel’s rightful victory at that time was not succeeding in recapturing East
Jerusalem.
27 Latour, THE RESURRECTION OF ISRAEL, p. 203.
Jordan
Occupied East Jerusalem
Instead, the Arab State of Transjordan captured East Jerusalem, expelled
all Jews and
destroyed or desecrated all Jewish holy sites. That is actually when
Jerusalem became
“occupied territory.” Defying the U.N. Mandate, Transjordan also
occupied the west bank of the River Jordan. No longer limited to being “Trans”
(across) Jordan (the east bank), Transjordan reduced its name to simply Jordan,
now ruling over both the occupied west bank and the original east bank of
Jordan. But this annexation of the “West Bank” by Jordan was not recognized by
any nation of the world—except Great Britain and Pakistan. Jordan was even
denounced by its Arab allies, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who
wanted to
expel Jordan from the Arab League!28
It is claimed that 600,000 Arabs fled “temporarily,” but
temporarily became permanently when the Arab invaders failed to destroy the new
State of Israel. David Ben-Gurion adamantly argued that the 600,000 figure was
a lie. “The refugee issue is one of the biggest lies, even among our own
people… I have all the figures. From the area of the State of Israel, only
180,000 Arabs left in 1948. There were 300,000 Arabs altogether in Israel and
120,000 remain.”29
In the 1967 Six Day War, under the threat of being “pushed into the sea”
by Egypt, Syria and
Jordan, Israel actually liberated the “occupied territory” of Jerusalem
and granted free access to Jews, Christians and Moslems to worship at their
respective Holy sites. Israel also liberated the “West Bank” and Gaza. How
easily recent history is forgotten. By comparison, Israel’s
administration, despite its faults, has been much more humane. The
realities of the Jordanian and Egyptian occupation are conveyed in the
following quote from HARSH REALITIES:30
For 19 years, until 1967, Jordan brutally occupied the renamed “West
Bank” with its 20 UNWRA refugee camps…. And when western Palestinians rioted in
December ’55, April ’57, April ’63, Nov. ’66 and April ’67, King Hussein sent
in tanks which shelled city streets and machine gunned people at random,
killing hundreds of men, women and children. The Gaza Strip, as it was known
for the 19
years of harsh Egyptian occupation, had 8 UNWRA refugee camps in which
the Palestinians were forced to live in overcrowded squalor. Egypt refused to
absorb any refugees; kept them stateless, denied passports, and forbade them to
travel or work in Egypt. [On the other hand, Palestinians were permitted to
work in Israel after 1967.]
For 19 years of brutal occupation of their fellow Arabs, Jordan and
Egypt kept these areas in a deliberate state of economic stagnation and severe
unemployment. Average unemployment in the early Sixties ran between 35-45%, and
refugee unemployment hit a high of 83%. Yet during this entire period, the
world was silent….Only after Israel’s seizure of these territories in a
defensive war in 1967, did anyone discover the “legitimate rights and national
aspirations” of the Palestinian Arabs.
From a humanitarian viewpoint, their situation improved immeasurably
under Israeli administration. Unemployment hovers around a mere 1% (1989) and
per capita gross income tripled in less than 20 years; infant mortality rates
dropped from the pre-1967 140 per 1,000 to only 30 per 1,000 today—at a time
when the rest of the Arab world is still at 80 per 1,000; 7 Arab colleges and
universities were established under Israel “occupation,” where none existed
before 1967. Yet it is Israel that is now being attacked.
Had the Arab countries any true intentions of helping their beleaguered
brethren from western Palestine, they would and could have absorbed them easily
4 decades ago, as the Israelites did of an even greater number of Jewish
refugees from Arab lands. The Palestinian Arabs share the same language,
religion and culture, and for 70% of them, the same countries of origin just 3
generations before when their grandfathers emigrated for economic reasons to
Palestine from surrounding Arab lands. But the 22 Arab countries, uninterested
in aiding their Palestinian brothers,preferred to use them as a political
weapon to wield against Israel, and the U.N. supported this heartless human
manipulation.
In the mid-1970’s Israel attempted to give the Palestinian Arab refugees
in Gaza new and better housing. The U.N. General Assembly, at the urging of the
Arab states, passed Resolution 32/90 condemning Israel for trying to relocate
these refugees and demanded they be returned “to the camps in which they were
removed.” And yet, a senior U.N. official came to Gaza in January 1988
accompanied by 10 TV crews on a fact-finding visit and laid the entire blame
for the situation at Israel’s feet. As if the U.N.’s own complicity in the
matter didn’t exist!
28 Yedelya Atland, HARSH REALITIES (Jerusalem: C. M. Israel Group
Ltd., 1989), p. 19
29 Howe and Gershman, ISRAEL, THE ARABS AND THE MIDDLE EAST, p.
207.
30 Atland, HARSH REALITIES, pp. 19, 20.
The Refugee Problem
When the six Arab nations invaded Israel at Israel’s birth, many claim
600,000 Arabs were
displaced in that war. What is not well known is that approximately
800,000 Jews, who were living in those six Arab nations, had to flee for their
lives because of Arab hatred. The solution to this refugee problem was simple—a
fair exchange. Israel, at a terrible economic cost, absorbed the 800,000 Jewish
refugees. But the Arab nations refused to accept these Arab refugees, their
Arab brethren. Rather, they placed them in refugee camps, which became dark
holes of hate and misery, models for propaganda to turn world opinion against
Israel. They succeeded.
“They
Partitioned My Land”
The UN has now had the audacity to call Jerusalem and the “West Bank”
“occupied territories” only after Israel regained them in the 1967 War. In 1922
the League of Nations had recognized the legal, moral and historic right of the
Jewish people to a national homeland in Palestine— including Jerusalem. If the
Jews had a right to Jerusalem recognized by the world community in 1922, that
right is still valid today.
But since then, the vast oil reserves were discovered in Arab lands. The
nations are compromising Israel’s rights for their own oil interests.
Consequently, the U.S. administration and the UN define East Jerusalem as
“occupied territory.” When Jordan occupied East Jerusalem, it was “occupied
territory.” But now, in fact, no part of Jerusalem is “occupied territory.”
Jerusalem—indivisible—belongs to Israel. The same logic applies to the “West
Bank.” Unfortunately, Israel’s government presently is too intimidated by
tremendous pressure from the U.S. and other world powers to insist on its
historic right to Judea-Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.”
What is the Lord’s perspective of all of these events? He is angry at
the nations. Whose Land is it that the world powers are now pressuring Israel
to give to the Arabs? During the current regathering of the Jews to Israel,
even before God’s Kingdom is set up in Jerusalem, God refers to Israel as “MY
people” and their Land as “MY Land” (Ezekiel 38:16; Isaiah 11:11). “they parted
[partitioned] MY land.” To whom does the Land belong? The Arabs? No! The Land
belongs to God and He gave it to the children of Israel. But the nations have
the arrogance to partition God’s Land. They took 77 percent of it away from
Israel, “MY people,” and gave it to the Arabs—and now the United States and the
nations of the world are pressuring Israel to surrender more of their Godgiven
Land to the Arabs. But the Lord has His own land plans for Israel.
Expanding Borders
Expanding Borders
A six-year study by over 250 scientists
and experts predicts that by the year 2020 the population of Israel will exceed
8,100,000, making Israel by far the most densely populated developed country in
the world. Israel will be more than 2.5 times more densely populated than Japan
and the Netherlands, and there will be a serious shortage of land for
residential construction. In Micah 7:11 the prophet speaks of our time as “the
day for extending your
[Israel’s] boundaries” (NAS). Actually, the Scriptures (Isa. 11 &
Zech. 10) indicate another large immigration of Jews from the CIS and a massive
exodus from the U.S. even before 2020. But there will be no land shortage.
A final Arab-Israeli war will precede this massive immigration. Israel’s
borders will be expanded to include all of the Golan Heights, much or all of
the sparsely inhabited nation of Jordan and Southern Lebanon (Isa. 11:14; Zeph.
2:8-9; Micah 7:11, 14; Obad.18-20). All of this territory was promised Israel
in the Balfour Declaration back in 1917. But God will finally give to Israel
even more than the nations promised (Genesis 15:18-21). The God of Israel is a
God of miracles—and He has only begun His miracles in achieving Israel’s
ultimate destiny. God will even work miracles to bring all nations into harmony
with Israel. His intentions are revealed by the Prophet Jeremiah (31:11):
For I am with thee (Israel) saith the Lord, to save thee; though I make
a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a
full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee
altogether unpunished.
After the destruction of their governments, the people of these nations
will “seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem” which will become the capital of
God’s Kingdom (Zechariah 8:20-23). Instead of converging on Israel and
Jerusalem to partition the Land or take it, the nations will come to Jerusalem
to learn of the God of Israel so that they may walk in His ways. Instead of coming
to dissect Israel, they will come to be taught (Isaiah 2:1-4). Yes, the
Messianic Era will come.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain [Kingdom]
of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall
be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths; for out of Zion [the spiritual seed of blessing] shall go forth
the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [the natural seed of
blessing].
The whole world—the Arab peoples too— will come up to worship the God of
Jacob in Jerusalem. Peoples of all national tongues will come to pray to the
LORD God of Israel because they will understand God is blessing Israel
(Zechariah 8:3, 21-23):
…Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the LORD
of hosts the holy mountain… O house of Judah and house of Israel; so will I
save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong….
It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of
many cities,… saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek
the LORD of hosts… ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the
nations, even shall take hold
of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we
have heard that God is with you.
Israel’s jubilee—fifty years of nationhood—is only the tumultuous
beginning. Beyond all the tears and trouble lies Israel as a beacon light to the
Gentiles. “There shall not be heard any more violence in thy land, wasting and
destruction within thy boundaries; but thou shalt call, Salvation, thy walls,
and thy gates, Praise” (Isaiah 60:3, 18 Isaac Leeser). God’s comprehensive
peace settlement for Israel will only signal the beginning of an eternity
of blessing all the families of the earth. Then the promise to Father
Abraham—passed down to Isaac then Jacob—will be fulfilled: “In thee and thy
seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14). The God
of Israel is a God of miracles. He has only begun His miracles in achieving
Israel’s ultimate destiny when the wonderful promises of Israel’s Prophet
Isaiah (35:5- 10) will be fulfilled for all mankind:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame [man] leap as an hart, and the tongue
of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in
the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, [shall be]
grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it
shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it
[shall be] for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err [therein].
No lion shall be there, nor [any] ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall
not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk [there]: And the ransomed of
the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall
flee away.
Here are the videos:
The next 12 videos of this film can be
seen as prompted on the screen. The next is written material.
Chapter One - Israel's Amazing
Uniqueness
Note: After writing this article I noticed that (amazingly) a blog I follow also unwittingly posted a simliar article about Israel (part 1) but on a slightly different slant and complements my article nicely. It is on: SOME HISTORY OF MODERN DAY ISRAEL 15 Sep 2010.
David has since posted 2 further articles on Israel which I recommend on:
Note: After writing this article I noticed that (amazingly) a blog I follow also unwittingly posted a simliar article about Israel (part 1) but on a slightly different slant and complements my article nicely. It is on: SOME HISTORY OF MODERN DAY ISRAEL 15 Sep 2010.
David has since posted 2 further articles on Israel which I recommend on:
EVEN MORE AMAZING EVENTS THAT SHOW YAHWEH IS WITH ISRAEL 21
Sep 2010 and
MESS WITH ISRAEL AT YOUR PERIL 25 Sep
2010
Labels: Bible is True the PROOF, Biblical Truth, Powerful Misc Videos, Why Christians Should Stand
Up For Israel
Anonymous said...
This is great information, great blog site! Lstar
John Chingford said...
The above comment was actually sent to my other new
site:
http://www.lastdayschristianmessenger.blogspot.com
I copied the comment here too because it is appropriate as this is exactly the same article.
http://www.lastdayschristianmessenger.blogspot.com
I copied the comment here too because it is appropriate as this is exactly the same article.
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