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Whose Land Really Is It? 

As the day of the Lord’s return draws closer we should expect to see an intensifying of the controversy over Israel, and more specifically Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.   This has indeed been the case since the outbreak of Palestinian initiated violence known as the Al Aksa Intifada.  However, the root cause of the animosity goes much further back than the visit to the Temple Mount by the Israeli government minister, Ariel Sharon late September 2000. 

The current situation was supposed to have been prevented by the Oslo Peace Treaty brokered between the Israelis and the Palestinians in 1993.  For several years after the sides began to negotiate, the issue of Jerusalem was set aside, to be dealt with after the other issues had been resolved.   For several years negotiations centered on the general conditions for a broad based Middle East peace treaty.  For their part, the Israelis committed to, and carried out major withdrawals from much of the territory Israel had occupied since the Six Day War of 1967.

Even in light of the fact that Israel had abided by the Oslo Agreement, the radical Palestinian militia groups continued to attack innocent Israeli citizens.  In 1995 and 1996, a series of terrorist bus bombings claimed the lives of dozens of innocent Israeli men, women and children.  A period of relative quiet followed the bus bombings, however many here in Israel were pessimistic of the real motives of the Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat.     

Early in 2000 the Oslo negotiations began to focus on the one point that threatened to derail all that had been achieved thus far – Jerusalem. The relations between the two sides began to deteriorate as no compromise could be arrived at. Then in late September Ariel Sharon made his now infamous visit to the Temple Mount.   Even though Sharon had asked for, and received, permission from the PA security chief, Arafat used this visit as a pretext to ignite the Al Aksa Intifada. Sharon received condemnation from around the world, but several in the PA leadership acknowledged that the uprising had been planned for some time before Sharon’s visit.

 Months earlier, when Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon, the terror organizations Hizballah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad saw it as a victory. The suggestion was made by Hizballah that the Palestinians should try the same approach of continual violence, to gain a similar victory over the Israelis.  Could this have been what inspired Arafat to call for and support the Al Aksa Intifada?    

At the time of the completion of this book (May 2002) the Al Aksa Intifada is now in its 20^th month.  More than 2500 Palestinians have died, the majority of them in the course of attacking Israeli citizens and soldiers.  During the same period, more than 450 Israelis have been killed, by far the majority being innocent men, woman and children who were murdered by misguided Palestinians who were under the impression that these despicable acts of terror will secure them a state with Jerusalem as its capital.    These dreadful acts of terror climaxed in March 2002 with one of the lowest acts of terror ever perpetrated against the Jewish people. On the eve of the Passover festival, a demonically inspired Palestinian terrorist exploded himself in a restaurant in Netanya, taking the lives of 27 Jewish people who were guilty of nothing more than celebrating the liberation of their forefathers from the same demon inspired Pharaoh in Egypt 3500 years ago.  The fact that they were celebrating the Passover in the very country that God promised to their ancestors, cost them their lives.

The Netanya Passover massacre, as it has come to be known, was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.  The Israeli people and the government of PM Ariel Sharon had been pushed too far. The patience of the Israelis ran out. As we say in the Pesach Seder, “Dayenu!“ (Enough!)     During April and May 2002, the Israel Defence Forces were involved in a large scale military offensive code-named “Operation Defensive Shield” against the terrorist network of the world’s No 1 arch terrorist, Yassar Arafat.   The Middle East and the whole world is on the verge of what could be the regional war that will reveal the man who will sign a seven year peace treaty and start the count-down to the second coming of the Messiah.

 As New Covenant members of the household of the God of Israel, and having been called to be His fellow workers we must be sure that we know the truth concerning the situation in the Middle East. The secular media, radio, T.V. and newspapers lie  under the  control of   the  Devil.  Satan is currently (and temporarily) the God of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the  prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) and the whole world lies under his influence. (1 John 5:19). He is the one who deceives the whole world. (Revelation 12:9)   

The Biblical Perspective 

Christians have no business turning to secular sources for the answer to the question  Whose Land Is It ?   The Bible is the only legitimate authority on this matter.  Follow me through the following verses and we will know for sure the answer to that question.

 Psalm 24:1  The Earth is the Lords and  all  its fullness     -    The world is the Lord’s and He can do with it as He pleases

 Psalm 115:16 The Heavens, even the Heavens are the Lords, but the Earth He has given to the children of men    -    We have no access to Heaven yet, but He has given us the Earth.   Adam was given full dominion over the Earth. 

Acts 17:26   And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.    -     The Lord has pre-appointed when and where we live

 Now for the most legitimate ‘land deed’ ever written  ……… 

Psalm 105:6-11  O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant:  "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit."

 If you look at an older Bible map and then at a newer map, you will see that the land once called Canaan, is exactly the same land now known as Israel. And you will also see that the above verses that constitute this eternal land deed there is no mention of Ishmael.  The Arab / Jewish conflict which has continually been the cause of untold death and destruction, and now threatens to engulf the entire world, can never be resolved until the Arabs and the rest of the world come to the realization that the Creator of the universe has decreed that all of Israel and beyond (Genesis 15:18) legitimately belongs to the Jewish descendants of Abraham.

 “Yes”,  some  may  say, “but   Israel  broke  the  covenant.” No she didn’t.  If we look at the story as it unfolds in Genesis 15:17 the Lord put Abraham to sleep. The procedure in cutting a covenant was that the two parties would walk backwards and forwards in the body parts and the blood, speaking out their covenant promises.  When God made the Abrahamic covenant, Abraham was asleep, God promised Abraham the land, but Abraham promised nothing.  The Jews have no covenant promise to break!     

 Israel or Palestine - 20 Interesting Facts 

Here is a list of some conveniently overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation.   

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the  modern State of Israel. 

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for 1000 years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years. 

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.  Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied the city of Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees. In 1948 the Arab refugees were encourage to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of  Jews Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.  

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory.   Of the 100 million refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated  into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arab - Israeli Conflict. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.  Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land autonomy under the Palestinian Authority and has supplied them with weapons.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all   Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

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