Security trumps ‘peace’
Western views of Israel owe more toanti-God disinformation than an objective grip on reality. Chuck and Karen Cohen un-spin the news…
The Temple Mount, God’s “holy hill” (Psa. 2:6; 3:4) …is often the centre of attention in Israel and the Muslim world. In July, guns were smuggled into its Islamic “holy” place and used to kill two non-Jewish Israeli policemen. Both were Druze. So Israel placed metal detectors at Muslim entrances. Detectors were already in place at all other entrances.
The Palestinian Authority [PA], Hamas, other Islamic entities and other nations, blamed Israel for trying to change the “status quo.”Yet that was altered when three terrorists murdered Israelis from that place.
After deadly riots, vicious terrorism and global pressure, the Israeli government gave in to this bully – the spirit of Islam. While it was expedient at the time, it does not speak well to the future, yet God knows and still reigns (Psa. 103:19)!
Anti-Semitism & anti-Zionism: the good & bad news
The good news is that for centuries God’s enemies have tried to destroy His nation and people without total success. “Keep not silent God! Hold not Your peace! Be not still! For look, Your enemies make a tumultuous noise. They that hate You exalt themselves, taking crafty counsel against Your people, [saying] … ‘Come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel be no longer remembered‘.”(Psa. 83:1-4) Written millennia ago, this is still the goal of God-haters today. Yet Israel and the Jews are still here and God is openly fulfilling His prophetic Word in and with them for His glory (Psa. 115:1-3).
Whether Jews settle in Jerusalem, Judea (Zech. 12:2-8) and Samaria (Jer. 31:4-5), or rise up from Nazi death camps to be “an exceedingly great army”(Ezek. 37:10), or fill the world with fruit literally and figuratively via life-saving inventions (Isa. 27:6), or return from the ends of the earth (Isa. 43:5-7; Jer. 31:10), or turn to Messiah Yeshua (Jer. 32:37-40; Ezek. 36:24-28; Zech. 12:10) – all this and more proves God’s faithfulness to His Word (Isa. 55:11; Jer. 1:12). This also includes His promise of the eternality of Israel’s descendants. “Thus says YHWH, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night… if these ordinances depart from before Me…then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever …If heaven above can be measured, or the earth’s foundations searched out, then will I cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done, says YHWH.“(Jer. 31:35-37)
The bad news is that most nations and groups who have tried to harm Israel, no longer exist. While this is good for Israel and the true Church, it is not good for nations resisting God’s acts in Israel today (Isa. 60:12; Joel 3:1-2). As we show in Why God Judges the Nations [www.ifi.org/teachings], He judges Israel for its sins and judges gentile nations according to how they deal with Israel: if they bless Israel, they will be blessed; if they curse Israel… (Gen. 12:3a; Num. 24:9b) If this is your nation, God still seeks intercessors to stand before Him, to ask for mercy instead of judgment. (Ezek. 22:30).
The Iranian regime is an enemy of God’s today
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called Israel a “cancerous tumor,”and calls for a “holy intifada [uprising]“to destroy the “Zionist regime,”and its “cruel occupation.”He sees this as”the most important issue in the world of Islam and as the pivot of unity for all Muslims…” (“Iran’s supreme leader backs ‘holy intifada’ to destroy ‘cancer’ Israel,”Times of Israel, 21 Feb. 2017)
Over 500,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, millions injured, internally displaced, or now refugees. Its economy and infrastructure is in ruins, and current peace talks show “that Syria is no longer in Syrian hands. An unholy mixture of superpower and other foreign interests” is redrawing its map.
This Russian, American and Iranian involvement, along with Islamic State’s [IS] weakening and loss of territory means that Iran now rules areas from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It controls Iraq, via “Shi’ite militias under its command,”and has just signed a military pact with that nation. It influences “what happens in Syria militarily and economically,” and aims to build a seaport on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. Syria’s President views this positively, yet Prime Minister [PM] Bibi Netanyahu has warned Russia’s President PutinIsrael will not allow this. (“[IS’] wane sets stage for regional superpower Iran,”Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel Analysis, 19 Mar. 2017; “Iran & Iraq Form Military Alliance,” ICEJ News, 24 July 2017)
From Intercessors for Israel’s July 28 Prayer Alert: “We’ve prayed for years against Iran establishing a link from Iran to the Mediterranean – what the King of Jordan calls ‘the Shi’ite Crescent’. Unfortunately, that which even this Muslim King warned about is happening today thanks in large part to the Syrian ceasefire agreement worked out between US President Trump and Russian President Putin.
“The Trump-Putin deal leaves Iran in Syria and, of course, Iran already controls Lebanon through Hezbollah, which has final say in that nation. This means Israel’s security situation has just become much more dangerous: Iran surrounds this nation today.”
Trump has no clue about this! On July 25th, in a White House press conference with Lebanon’s PM Hariri,he made a ludicrous claim that Lebanon was”on the front lines in the fight“against Hezbollah! Yet today, Hezbollah is a major government partner in Lebanon. It “controls the most powerful military force“in that country, and Lebanon’s “Christian” President Aoun, is its loyal ally. Since it has “tremendous influence over Lebanese politics,” and is in reality an Iranian proxy, “Lebanon is, to a large extent, a state under heavy Iranian influence.”
Ex-Israeli Defense Minister Ya’alon, interviewed by a Saudi news website, said, “If Hezbollah were to make the foolish mistake of escalating tension” with Israel, Israel has clearly said it would not “distinguish between Lebanon and Hezbollah…“
Trump does not see this, and that is problematic for Israel’s next inevitable confrontation with Hezbollah. Recognizing the Lebanon-HezbollahIran link is “essential to understanding Israel’s displeasure” with the US-Russia Syrian ceasefire deal “that leaves Iranian and Hezbollah influence in Syria largely intact.” (“Clueless Trump,”Jerusalem Post editorial, 27 July 2017)
For Israelis, security trumps peace
A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs poll showed a sharp drop in hopes for peace among Israeli Jews: 69% don’t see negotiations leading to a deal; 77% are against a ‘Palestine’ in the “occupied“area of Judea and Samaria; 71% want peace based “on Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people“; 81% demand Israeli security control of the Jordan Valley; 50% oppose transferring Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods to the PA; and 83% oppose Israel giving up sovereignty over the Temple Mount. This major shift of attitudes since the Oslo Accords is the fruit of Palestinian intransigence. It is also an answer to prayer for God to harden the hearts of Israel’s foes so that Israel could not divide His land. With today’s ME realities, Israeli Jews are “much more suspicious of Palestinian intentions and much more aware of security dangers.” (“New moves toward a Peace Agreement must consider Israeli Public Opinion,” Brig.-Gen. (res.) Y. Kuperwasser, JCPA, 30 Mar. 2017)
Israeli Parliament members [MKs] told US Jews that “security trumps peacemaking.“American Jews are struggling with Israel’s “changed political and economic conditions…” Until recently, US Jews had projected “their political worldview on Israelis.” This view from exile “presumed to judge policies and actions of Israel based on values and morals” of a US Jewish experience. Yet today Israelis reject this mindset, veering rightward. A left-wing Israeli MP sees this as no surprise in the face of “relentless hostilities; continual renewed waves of violence” against civilians, and “decades of failed peace negotiations.” (“Adjusting to the Israeli consensus on the Palestinians,” The Jewish Advocate editorial, 14 Apr. 2017)
Trump had previously said, “Until the Palestinians give up terror and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a peace agreement will never be reached,” yet now he says, “Abbas wants peace.” But facts show that is a lie, as those “who want peace do not fund indiscriminate killings” of people they want peace with, nor do they “condemn the killing of terrorists” caught in the act. They do not have a school curriculum, educating children for jihad and martyrdom. “As long as Palestinians are led by terrorists, reared to hate, and paid to be terrorists, the probability that peace”will be negotiated is zero. “This is the inconvenient truth of the IsraelPalestinian conflict …”(“The inconvenient truth about the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” Fred Maroun, Times of Israel Blogs, 22 June 2017) Satan’s “security” trap is to trust man rather than God.
Jordan’s FM Safadi said, “Arab countries would provide security for Israel if it withdraws from Judea and Samaria.” So for Israel to get an Arabic security blanket, all it must do is forsake its land liberated in ’67. Divide God’s Promised Land and Muslims will protect us? His comments match those of Jordan’s King: “The whole point of our peace initiative is for us to be guarantors of Israel’s security.”(“Jordan to Israel: Withdraw and you’ll get security,” Arutz 7, 30 Apr. 2017) This conveniently ignores Islam’s taqiyya tactic – its stamp of approval on Muslims who lie to further Allah’s cause.
But Israel has gay-pride parades
Recently, Intercessors for Israel received this question: “The Israeli government contributes finance to Gay Pride and homosexual organisations. So how does that line up with the word of God? Tel Aviv is reportedly the second largest gay capital of the world. The government allows gay pride marches in Jerusalem… I don’t know how you can pray for a government that contradicts the word of God. You don’t even highlight this in your weekly prayer points.“
Here’s Chuck’s edited reply: While all Western nations, except for a few in Eastern Europe, are now openly post Christian and trend toward a liberal anything-goes direction, Israel is still – and I use this term solely for clarity – pre-‘Christian’. The last true revival here was recorded in the book of Acts.
What you are asking is why doesn’t Israel act better than a ‘Christian’ nation? When the day comes for all Israel to be saved, only after that will it become all that which you are expecting it to be today.
This is why we pray for security, so that all Israel will be alive to be saved; for aliyah, since God clearly states all Israel gets saved in the land; for no division of the land and for a government that resists the demand to divide this land, because God clearly states that all Israel gets saved in the land.
Here’s a question for you: would you tell your gay neighbor to leave his/her gay lifestyle and then come to Jesus, or would you tell him/her to come to Jesus just as they are, and then, once saved, trust the Lord to give them the grace to live a life pleasing to Him? Most believers recognize that no one is truly released from the slavery to sin until they are saved. So why expect something different from Israelis?
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them. You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:25-28)