ISRAEL
AND THE WORLD'S MOCK TRIAL
THE SHAME
1.
Introduction
2.
Turning The Tables Around to See In The Eyes of
a Jew
The
Unlikely Scenario
We Are
All Prejudice
3.
The Land – Who Ruled It?
Did
The Arabs Rule The Land?
A Land
of Desolation
The Palestinians, Are They Ishmaelites
or Philistines?
The Jews
of Russia
Who’s
Land – Ishmael or Isaac?
The New Testament Ends Land Issue
The Prophecies of Israel
Fulfilled in the Past
Bible
Confirmation
4.
Israel’s Victory Against the Arabs –
Psalm 83, The Most Ignored Prophecy
The Persecution of the Jews By The
Arabs
The Dark Era on Jewish Life under
Thimmidude
5.
The Nazi – Islam Connection
Nazi
– Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Arabia Prior to 1948
Let’s Not Forget The Armenian
Holocaust
Nazi – Islam Connection, The Persecution
of Jews in Palestine Prior to 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Morocco Prior to 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution
of Jews in Morocco After 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Yemen Prior to 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Tunisia Prior to 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Libya Prior to 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Algeria Prior to 1948
Nazi
Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews in Syria Prior to 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews
in Egypt Prior to 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of
Jews in Iran/Persia Prior to 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews
in Iraq Prior to 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of
Jews in Iraq After 1948
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of Jews
in Spain by the Muslims
Nazi Islam Connection, The Persecution of
Jews – Conclusion
6.
What Do The Palestinians Teach in
Schools, Media and Mosques?
The Jews – Guilty For Any Trumped up
Charge
Libelous
Accusations
The
Jews Are Illegitimate
The Jews Are The Devil
The Jews
Are Racist
The
Jews Spread Disease
The
Jews Spill Blood
The
Jews Are Leaches
The
Jews Are Shylocks
The
Jews Are Blood Suckers
The Face
of Peace
Historical
Fabrications
Palestinian
Schools
The
Muslim Clergy In Jerusalem
The
Palestinian Media
Jews Are
Nazis
Military
Officials
Ministry
of Justice
The
Civil Authority
The Holocaust Denial, A Fabrication
Arafat
Revealed
His Continued Ties With Terrorism
Did
The Jew Steal The Land
Jewish
Land Purchases
Who Truly Scattered The Palestinians
Jewish
Terrorism?
Blamed
No Matter What
Dayr
Yaseen – A History of A Lie
Dividing Israel – Theological or
Political Issue
Dividing Israel – What The ‘Nations’
Are Doing
7.
Christians and Jews Persecuted Together
Martin Luther – The X Catholic Monk
The Persecution of Jews by ‘Christendom’
Zionists
– Christians and Jews
Gentile Christians – Should They
be Zionists
Replacement
Theology – History
Replacement Theology – The Opinion
of the Masses
Replacement Theology – Who is a Jew
Replacement Theology – Who is “Israel
of God”?
Who
Wanted to Kill Who?
Bible Prophecy – Who Should Interpret
It?
Bible Prophecy – If Only the World
Can See
Bible
Prophecy – The Golden Gate – Is it Just a Gate?
Bible Prophecy – Israel by Divine Right
8.
The Coming Islamic
Alliance of Nations Against Israel
9.
Bible Prophecy – An Amazing Prophecy
– Tyre
10.
Who Causes Division
What
is Meant by ‘Chosen People’
Tears
for Peace, Not for Land
11.
Bible Prophecy Ignorance – The Danger
Is
God Through with the Jew
Who’s
Temple Mount
The Eastern
Gate
12.
EMEU, Al-Sabeel, Al Bushra, Abuna Chacour – What Are Their
Ecumenical Goals?
13.
Conclusion
▲
INTRODUCTION
My grand father Daud was
the Mukhtar (chieftain) of the Shoebat clan in the village of Beit Sahur of the
district of Bethlehem. He had owned much land in his village and as a landowner
and "Mukhtar" he entertained Arab leaders with feasts and songs, hiring
special cooks for the preparation of lambs and delicate dishes for men of great
stature. Men like Abdul Qader Al-Husseni leader of the Palestinian Revolution
and Haj Al-Ameen Al-Husseni the religious grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was a
staunch friend of Adolf Hitler.
It is rarely mentioned that
the grand mufti of Jerusalem was with Adolf Hitler on the eve of the
"Final Solution" to the world's "Jewish Problem" on
November 21, 1941 (see photo:
*,
*, see also
*,
*,
*,
*).
One of the Grand Mufti's accomplishments was a
letter written to Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs asking him to
stop the immigration of half million Hungarian Jews. The letter was honored and
all were put to death in the extermination camps. That was a shame. My grand
father being a friend to such a man is a shame I cannot change, the only thing
I can do is to teach my children to love Jews like any other.
My grand father also
survived a mock trial by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni the leader of the Palestinian
revolution for selling land to Jews. The facts are many were selling land but
to the revolution this constituted treason. Selling land to immigrant Jews was
forbidden while it was a norm for someone like Haj Al-Ameen Al-Husseni to sell
his soul to Satan by collaborating with Hitler and enticing the masses to kill
and pillage Jewish immigrants. But as usual the innocent is butchered while the
guilty is set free.
My grand father liked
everyone, he had no problem selling land to Jewish or Christians immigrants -
the village had much land with only a handful of families that immigrated in
the last decade prior to the 1948 war. Yet he was not free to do with his land
whatever he wished, so the mock trial went on with Abdul Qader Al-Husseni and
his men, after kidnapping my grand father and taking him to the village of
Al-Khader.
A few moments later and
after someone summoned my great grand father Abdullah Ali, known for his great
physical strength, bravery and courage, walked in on the scene in which a rope
was prepared and my grand father standing ready for the execution. Abdullah Ali
pleaded for his son-in-law's life. My grand father was given his last warning,
and so he was set free.
Today, I believe that many
who are blind to truth will accuse us folk who change our minds with high
treason and quickly give us a mock trial. To such people I ask: Don't we all
deserve a fare and just trial, yet many are judged without even examining the
facts?
The Holocaust was not the
only shame people ever committed, the greatest man of history the Jewish Rabbi
Yeshua ben Yosef one day was put on trial, and His testimony was not even
taken, yet He was condemned to death like a criminal in a world that stood
silent. Must we all do the same? How can mankind be so truth-seeking, and full
of justice and do such a thing? Then to later on, slap the guilt of such evil
doing on the Jews alone, when it was clear that the first believers and
supporters of this Jewish Rabbi were practically all Jews who stood at the
cross weeping while the rest mocked? Yet the Jew unwillingly earned the title
"Christ killer" when the Bible clearly states that we "all"
killed Christ, each and every sinner, for He came to die for our sins.
To me the truth exists,
but before we can be able to find it, we need a process of clearing the murky
waters between Jew and Gentile by carefully examining the facts. It is then
when we get to see what God really wants us to be. I have seen so many
anti-Israel material these days, speaking only half truths, and without
presenting the other's case, I took it upon myself to speak out and write,
for I hate mock trials. (The Author)
TURNING THE TABLES AROUND TO SEE IN THE EYES OF A JEW
A common Palestinian's
opinion:
"I like Jews but I
hate Zionism"
"I have nothing
against Jews, but I don't like Israel."
I used to hate words like
"Yerushalayim", "Shalom", "Yesrael", or anything
Jewish as I considered them foreign words forced into my homeland of what I and
my people called "Palestine". To me Israel was an occupier, an
oppressor, a thief in the night who snuk in one day to rob me of my home,
heritage, and land.
I hated the Jews in Israel
and was determined on their destruction, to the point that I resorted to
rioting and terrorism. By any means Israel must be terminated. Later on, and
for unknown reasons I wanted to put myself in the shoes of a Jew and started
studying the Bible. I realized then that studying an important portion of
scripture made me see things from the eyes of a Jew who was put on a mock
trial, His name was Yeshua ben Yosef identified by gentiles as the name of
Jesus of Nazareth. I concluded that the only way to reach peace in this
turbulent world, is for us to remove ourselves for a while, enter behind the
eyes of this Jewish Messiah, see how He sees, feel the way He feels, and
understand how and why things are the way they are.
I began to see things
differently, having lived in the Holy Land I failed during all these trips to
Jerusalem, to see why the Jews were only allowed a Wailing Wall as the holiest
place for them. Why was the Jew not allowed to worship on the Temple Mount or
even be allowed to rebuild it - if the Muslim world has Mecca, the Catholic
world has the Vatican, and many Christian pilgrims are allowed to visit all the
holy sites, yet the Jew is barred to have a Temple, especially when the Temple
was originally theirs? The world would be in uproar if someone other than
Muslims were to take over Mecca!
We have seen in history the
numerous wars of the crusades over allowing the Christian pilgrims to visit
their holy sites in Jerusalem but here we have Jews in Israel having the upper
hand, being more powerful than their enemy, yet they allow their most holy site
to still be trodden down by the Muslim Gentiles, especially when Sheik Ikrimeh
Sabri, Jerusalem's Grand Mufti, preaches daily sermons from Israel's first and
foremost holiest site calling for the destruction of the Jews. These folk have
to listen to the loud speakers while they worship outside under the weather
elements, and in the bottom western side designated for the Jews, to only hear
that the Wailing Wall area is in reality an Islamic site called "Al-Buraq",
and it too belongs to the Muslims: "The 'Al-Buraq' Wall [the Western Wall]
is a part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jews have no relation to it, whether or
not a decision to expropriate it was made." (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
Ikrama Sabri in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, November 22, 1997.
While Mecca is the only
place demanded for Muslims in the Quran, Judaism is the only religion in which
the city of Jerusalem is an inseparable part of religious faith. Jews alone
are mandated by biblical law to celebrate their religion in Jerusalem. Muslims
refer to some tradition of extra "Haj" requirements to visit
Jerusalem, yet such practice seem to have never been followed from time
immemorial. Jerusalem seems to have gained importance only when the Jews
laid claim to it.
How is it that the Jew and
under all the circumstances, must remain silent? Why is it that much of the
world is in denial when the facts are that the Temple Mount is known to have
had the first and second temples built on that site by Jews and for Jews? Does
a Muslim mosque on the Temple Mount make it null and void of it being Jewish?
Then you have the
Palestinian prominent historian Jarid Al-Kidwa announced from the Palestinian
TV that: "The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the
Land of Israel--they occurred in the Arabian peninsula, primarily in Yemen. The
identity of our father Ibrahim [Abraham] who is mentioned in the Koran is
clear. From the Koran's description of him it arises that he lived in the
southern Hejaz [Saudi Arabia], near Mecca." Mr. Al-Kidwa also announced
that the Arab in reality has the true Jewish blood while the Jew is from a
Khazarian race.
▲
THE UNLIKELY SCENARIO
Assuming that the Jews
decided for one reason or another to agree with Mr. Al-Kidwa that Mecca has
really been built by the their father Abraham, and some day they fought an Arab
resistance which prohibited the Jew from worshiping in Mecca and Israel decided
to take over Saudi Arabia, put their Kohanim Ha-Gadol (High Priest) over that
holy site, take out everything Arabic, and have Hebrew calligraphy written all
around the Cabba's wall, and make it an abomination for any Muslim to set foot
on it's ground. Yet can this scenario be allowed in the Muslim and Christian
world? This would be unthinkable!!! Things are different when we turn the
tables around.
Now let us assume that the
Arabs decided after all these harassments, to overcome the Jew and take back
Saudi Arabia, will the Mullahs of Islam stand silent and allow all this
sacrilege to continue? What would you assume that Arab and Muslim masses will
do to these Jews? It could be possible that Mecca's Grand Mufti will make an
exception to allow the sacrifice during the Haj be both sheep and Jew. Yet, the
Jew who has never taken over Mecca or occupied and Arab nation, suffers such
things, and dares to remain silent, and instead of his outcry, he is being
sacrificed throughout history for simply being Jew.
We have seen throughout
history and during every war against the Jew in the Middle East the cry of the
Arab leaders to kill the Jew were ever they are found. Even after they are dead
they seem not to escape the wrath, in their holiest city 2,500-year-old Jewish
cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a road was dug through it using Jewish
tombstones for a pathway to the Arab Legion army latrine. Yet the Jew have not
revenged, he remains silent. This silence in front of a world of false accusers
is quite amazing.
Studying The Bible taught
me more then how it is like to be a Jew, but how to look at things after
clearing the murky water. Being a Christian from the Bible's perspective is in
reality being a "Spiritual" Jew. Christianity is not a new religion,
it is simply the original Jewish faith fulfilled in Messiah. It is only then I
realized that the way to true and everlasting peace, is to see how God in the
Bible is able to reconcile between Jew and Christian. I started to realize that
God is indeed a God of peace and that the God of Islam is indeed bent on
destructing the Jew. The Bile did not have a single verse calling the
Christians to destroy Jews, yet the tyrants of Christendom spoke on their own
accord and the Muslim God was not the same God mentioned in scripture. How is
it then that Christendom claims to follow God's commandments, yet from long ago
they failed to have peace with the Jew?
That facts are - many
Christian movements have always existed throughout history, these
"spiritual" Jews followed the Bible, and not only were successful to
make peace with the Jew, but aided them to obtain freedom at last. True
Christianity will always reconcile between Jew and Gentile. But with this
reconciliation always comes persecution and mock trials.
It is after I removed the
scales from my eyes, replacing my prejudiced heart, and study the simple facts,
I decided to become a Christian. It's a long testimony, but now I am amazed,
and still have a difficult time believing that I became quite the opposite of
everything I was taught and believed in. Whatever Popes declared or Martin
Luther wrote against the Jews was the works of their own hearts and had nothing
to do with our Lord.
Today, I love Hebrew, the
Jews, and Israel and ready to fight for her rights of existence as long as
their is still a breath left in my life. Before you judge me, or accuse me of
madness or treason, please put me on trial and read my lines and weigh the
facts to see for yourself if what I am about to share is based on factual
evidence.
Defenders of Jews in
Germany during Adolf Hitler's reign was looked upon as traitors, but after the
evil episode was over, these folk were recognized as righteous gentiles. So why
do people prefer to live a nightmare through to realize their errors? Why not
wake up before it even starts? The Middle East and the Islamic World in general
are bent on destroying Israel, why not wake up and stop the repetition of
history against the Jew?
My conclusion of all of my
life's research is this: Simply put, there is no freedom of speech, thought, or
religion in any Arab or Muslim nation. These nations once taken over by Islam,
they have little difference in their ways from communism. Most of all, it has
the same inclination to export its ideas. It does not respect national borders,
and the end justifies the means: "While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the servants of corruption.... " (2 Peter 2:19). I have
learned that once I expressed my opposing views and exercised these rights my
own people the Arabs and Muslims who claim to fight for freedom, were the first
to condemn me. In a debate over my thoughts with a group of Muslims and Arabs
on the internet, out of the whole group, everyone but one lady declared that I
must be killed as a result of my "Apostate" opinions. Finally I have
learned what it is like to be a Jew.
The brainwashing of the Arab
and Muslim masses by Islam's propaganda has produced narrow minded cookie cut
mentality, similar to what we see in Communist and Nazi regimes, who think that
their struggle is a struggle of justice, but always and ignorantly following a
lie and walking into the traps of evil tyrants. The sad thing is, once they rid
one tyrant, another more evil one seems to crop up. The truth is, people have no
right to complain since the tyrants they seem to get is in reality the
representation of their own hearts - they condemn others, so they themselves
are condemned. Corruption only begets more corruption, and evil only begets
more evil, it will never stop until we have a change in heart.
This book is written in
simple English. Classical language, and perfect grammar are not the key to
finding truth or peace, since many evil books were written with perfect
grammar, and excellent style, yet a book is not to be judged by it's cover, or
colored photos but by it's content.
Art could be deceptive,
when I first read the Bible I was turned off by the simple language it was
written in, the simple statements and declarations. No fancy words, no
classical language, blunt, and to the point, yet it was filled with detailed
facts, amazing prophecies, and an extremely accurate set of records on ancient
history and future history as well. It seems that God wanted it communicated to
every simple man on the face of this globe.
The Author
▲
WE ARE ALL PREJUDICED
A Palestinian's opinion:
"I am not prejudiced,
I only hate Jews who want to live in my land".
One day I decided to take
my wife and children for a visit to the Tolerance Museum in Los Angeles
California, the end result that it was proven to us, beyond any doubt, that we
are ALL prejudiced.
Today I am of the opinion
that people in general are not truth seekers, since most people constantly try to
fit the facts to match their wishes. Theology has been used by many; the KKK
have found in the Bible reasons to hate black and Jew, the Pogroms found in the
Bible reasons to commit atrocities towards the Jew, and even schemers are seen
daily on TV using the Bible like the old medicine man, offering healing, signs,
and wonders.
I believe that most
convictions have nothing to do whatsoever with facts, the truth is, we are
driven by culture and upbringing. It is these that drive the minds of the
masses and not the claim that we all are truth seekers. Tradition plants a
certain state and condition in our hearts to the point of even slightly or
greatly bending the facts in order to fit and justify our traditional goals.
To me everyone is
prejudice. If everyone really seek pure fact or even true justice, why is it
then that almost every German stood behind Hitler? Almost every Palestinian
Muslim stood behind Hitler's great friend The Mufti Haj Al-Ameen Al-Husseni
President of the Supreme Muslim Council who called for the death of every Jew
be it civilian or soldier? Why is almost every Palestinian you speak to on the
streets of the West Bank anti-Israel? Even in the Christian communities who
supposed to be "truth" seekers, and God pleasers, almost all
Christian Arabs are for a Palestinian State against Israel, even with all the
scripture written concerning Israel? Could really it be that both the pro-Israel
and anti-Israel are right? Does God have two different and opposite
opinions?
Again I say it, it is a
condition of the heart. If we only lay our feelings, thoughts, and whatever we
learned aside, and look at scripture which was written to be understood by
simple peasants and farmers in it's simple and clear words. If God wanted to
send us a message, he must make it simple. God's Word requires no attorney,
high priest, enlightened spiritists, Vatican, or Seminary graduates, to make to
us clear what God made clear already. God is in the business of making strange
declarations, promises. He is the only one that could fulfill them, and in very
strange ways as well.
God is in the business of
making predictions and seeing them come through, to make it known to man that
He alone is in control and despite what we like and wish, He does things His
"strange" way and unlike man's "logical" ways. Don't men
ever think, that if God did things our ways He would be human?
The world will never stop
producing sinister minds. The masses with mediocre discernment are no match to
professional deception. Today, we still have plenty of mini Hitlers, and
religious deception is on the rise. No wonder God warned us to be as wise as serpents
and innocent as doves.
▲
THE LAND - WHO RULED IT?
"For Zion's sake will
I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a
lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings
thy glory...I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not
silence. (The Bible, Isaiah 62:1-2 & 6).
The Bible describes Israel
as:
"land upon which the
eyes of God are always turned" (Deuteronomy 11:12).
Islam describes the Jewish
end as:
"The Last Hour would
not come till the Muslims fight against the Jews, and the Muslims will kill
them until the Jews hide themselves behind the stones and trees, and the stones
and trees would speak up saying: "O Muslim! O slave of Allah! There is a
Jew hiding behind me; come and kill him." The _Ghardaq_ tree would speak,
for it is the tree of the Jews." (Muhammad the prophet of Islam, narrated
by Abu Hurraira).
Mark Twain describing the
Jews wrote:
"If the statistics are
correct, the Jews represent merely one percent of humanity - an irrelevant
spark in the light of the Milky Way. Normally speaking, the Jews should hardly
be heard of, and yet we heard and hear of them again and again. They can rival
any people on earth in fame, and their significance in economy and trade are in
no ratio to their population. Their contribution to the list of great names in
literature, natural science, art, music, finance, medicine and profound
learning is just as amazing. They have done extremely well in this world - with
their hands tied behind their backs. They could rightly be proud of themselves.
The Egyptians, Babylonians and Persians came into power, filled the earth with
their glory, but perished. The Greeks and Romans followed, "made a lot of
noise," and then disappeared. Other nations rose up, their torches burned
for a while, and then they were extinguished, and today they sit in the
twilight or have completely disappeared. The Jews saw it all. They beat them
all, and are today what they always were, showing no decay, no aging, no
weakening, no decline of energy, no blunting of their wide-awake dynamic
spirit. Everything is mortal except the Jew. All other powers perish but he
remains. What is the mystery of his immortality? " (Mark Twain, 1899).
Pope John Paul II opinion:
"[The] Shepherds Of
Bethlehem are your ancestors" (Pope John Paul the II speaking to a crowd
of Palestinian Arabs in Dehaishe near Bethlehem, March 22, 2000)
A common Palestinian
opinion:
"We didn't kick out
the Jews the Romans did, and the Arabs came there later, so why the Arab has to
take the heat?".
"The land was always
ruled by Arabs, what gives the Jews the right to rule it?".
A common Palestinian claim:
"The Arabs owned and
governed the land for a millennium.".
"The land was Arab
with majority Arab population from time immemorial".
"The land is Arab
Palestine not Jewish Israel".
"The country was
inhabited by Arabs throughout the centuries, in 1948 when Israel was
established there were thriving cities like Jerusalem, Yaffa, Hebron, Lud, and
many others.".
PLO TV: "all the
events surrounding Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occurred in Yemen, and no
Hebrew remnants were found in Israel, for a very simple reason--because they
were never here." (Al-Kidwa, Palestinian Historian on Palestine TV)
Solomon's opinion: "He
who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines
him." (Proverbs 18:17).
Matthew 23: "Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate.", predicting the destruction of the
Temple and the Diaspora. This could not have been any other desolation like the
Babylonian desolation, only the Diaspora could fit this description in Matthew
23.
Ezekiel 36: "The
desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who
pass by. So they will say, 'This land that was desolate has become like a
garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified
and inhabited." .
In a book "Whose Promised
Land?" by Colin Chapman, the author asks as to the validity of the Jewish
claims. Although one cannot tell a book by the cover, in this case it is easy
to see that when one questions the commonly known title to Israel "The
Promised Land", it would be obvious to see where the author is driving at.
The difficulty in examining
one sided arguments is that there is no one else to introduce the missing
elements needed but hidden by biased thinking.
While the cover is
proposing that both views are examined "What are the claims and counter
claims", as the author puts it, a cross examination as suggested by
Solomon in Proverbs 18:17 will shed different light on the the author's
arguments.
While Mr. Chapman only
presented brief summary on the history of the land, we insist to include main
elements not known or for whatever reason ignored or forgotten by the author.
In chapter one 16 1.6 the
title "Palestine under the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks", while
there was never a name "Palestine" during any of these empires, yet
it is presented as a historical fact.
▲
DID THE ARABS RULE THE LAND?
To give the Arabs the
credit of hundreds of years ruling the land he sums up two dynasties in section
1.9 titled: "Palestine under the Arabs and Seljuk Turks (632 -
1096)", stretching the times of the Arabs by combining the two together.
To make things more murky,
and since he realizes how short the Arabs lived in the land, instead of openly
admitting the fact that Arabs have only ruled less then a century he writes:
"While the Palestinian Arabs cannot claim to be 'pure Arabs', they can
maintain without any doubt that their ancestors - however mixed racially they
may be - have been living in the land for thirteen centuries at the very
least (i.e since the seventh century AD)".
The great historian David
George Hogarth who was described by Arab writers as "one of the greatest
authorities of his time on Arabian history" said: "Arabs governed
Arabs, through Arabs on an imperial scale for much less than a century. It is
just the Umayyad Caliphate -- the Damascus period and no more".
The exaggeration even gets
worse, once a top official of the Palestinian Authority is asked. In an
interview between Zola Levitt and Mr. Husseni, a right hand man to Yasser
Arafat, in a Zola Levitt Television program, Mr. Husseni bluntly claimed that
the Palestinians originated from the Jebusites before Abraham moved to Israel,
he clearly changed the historic fact to an American audience who lacks in
Eastern History.
Contrary to these arguments
which plague the schools of the West Bank, today's Palestinians are immigrants
from many nations: "Balkans, Greeks, Syrians, Latins, Egyptians, Turks,
Armenians, Italians, Persians, Kurds, Germans, Afghans, Circassians, Bosnians,
Sudaneese, Samaritans, Algerians, Motawila, Tartars, Hungarians, Scots,
Navarese, Bretons, English, Franks, Ruthenians, Bohemians, Bulgarians,
Georgians, Syrians, Persian Nestorians, Indians, Copts, Maronites, and many
other" (DeHass, History, p. 258. John of Wuzburg list from Reinhold
Rohricht edition, pp. 41, 69).
It was only starting in 1878
that harsh conditions forced many groups to immigrate into Palestine:
"Circassian, Algerians, Egyptians, Druses, Turks, Kurds, Bosnians, and
others. 141,000 settled Muslims living in all of Palestine (all areas) in 1882,
at least 25% of those 141,000 were newcomers who arrived after 1831 from the
Egyptian conquest." (Ernst Frankenstine, Justice for my people, London,
Nicholson and Watson, 1943 p. 127).
"The Arab Muslims took
the land from the Byzantines, later came the Abbasids who entrusted the land to
Iranians, who trusted mercenaries, at first Persian, then Turk, Circassian,
Kurd -- any race but the Arabians" (Hograth, Arabs and Turks).
After the Turkish Ottomans
the British fought the Turks for supporting the Nazis, and legally created the
State of Israel. There was never a call for National Palestine except after the
Jews got that land. The Arabs then out of jealousy called to wipe out all the
Jews which resulted in Arab defeat as the Bible already predicted.
In 438 CE There is
conclusive historical and archaeological evidence that there has been an
unbroken Jewish presence in Jerusalem since 438 CE, 200 years before the Arab
conquest in 638 CD.
The Jewish claim,
therefore, is not based on biblical and historical rights alone. Jews have
always been permanent residents of Jerusalem. Since 1820, the Jews constituted
the largest single community there. Despite persecution and oppression, the
Jewish presence in Jerusalem was interrupted only twice: under Byzantine rule
between 135 and 438 CE, and during the Crusader Kingdom, which lasted from 1099
to 1187 CE.
Despite volumes of
historical accounts on Israel's desolation Chapman concludes: "Given the
situation of Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century - with 5 per cent
Jews and 95 per cent Arabs living under the Ottoman Empire", he lashes at
Theodore Herzl "But I cannot see how he [Herzl] can be excused for
describing Palestine to European audiences as 'a land without a people'"
(Chapter 5, p224).
In the entire history of
Arab and Muslim conquest of the land, and with the claim for the Temple Mount
as the third most holy place, never was any significant Islamic school
established, or Jerusalem made to a capital, or a valid state set up for the
Arabs. The city of Jerusalem was never visited by any Arab leader besides the
kings of Jordan, and even the "Sunnah" requirement of the Haj was not
practiced by Muslims which required visiting Jerusalem. Even running water and
electricity was never established. There was never a call for a Palestinian
State in all Arab history only after the Jews got it. Yet the Jews made all the
"nevers" possible when they made this ignored land a nation. They
made Jerusalem a capital, opened the holy places to all three religions, and
built it like never before. Yet only then the Muslim and Arab world are crying
for it. Why only after the Jew got it?
▲
A LAND OF DESOLATION
What is left out by many
who argue this issue is that prior to the 1800's the land was hardly inhabited
except for very small pockets of population scattered throughout the country.
The fact from history
contradicts the propagandists of today, the land was not a thriving nation in
the past 2000 years or so.
The Diaspora of the Jews
which was prophesied by Christ and the prophets before Him left Israel a land
of desolation. Besides small spots of population, the land was mostly empty.
One historian after the other agrees to a major fact the Bible already
predicted long ago:
Dio Cassius describing
Israel when it was destroyed by the Romans: "Of their forts the 50
strongest were razed to the ground, 985 of their best known villages were
destroyed.....Thus the whole of Judea became desert, as indeed had been
foretold to the Jews before the war. For the Tomb of Solomon, whom these folks
celebrate in their sacred rights, fell into it's own accord into fragments, and
wolves and hyenas, many in number roamed howling through their cities"
(History of the Romans, lxix, 12-14 cited by DeHass, History, pp 55-56).
In 1590 A.D, an English
visitor to Jerusalem road wrote, "nothing there to be seen but a little of
the old walls, which is yet remaining and all the rest is grass, mosse and
weeds much like to a piece of rank or moist grounde." (Gunner Edward
Webbe, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement page 86).
In 1697 Tiberius was being
resettled by Jews from Papal states, whose immigration was approved by a Papal
bull, Nazareth was continuing it's decline. A Franciscan Pilgrim writes:
"A house of robbers, murderers, the inhabitants are Saracens...it is a
lamentable thing to see thus such a town. We saw nothing more stony, full of
thorns and desert.". (DeHass, History, p337, citing The Palestine
Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1925, p197).
In the mid 1700's, British
Archeologist Thomas Shaw wrote that the land in Palestine was "lacking in
people to till it's fertile soil." (Thomas Shaw, Travels and Observations,
London 1767, p331).
1793, Count Constantine F.
Volney claimed that the population of Jerusalem was less then 14,000; Hebron
had 900 men, and Bethlehem had only 600 adult men."
J. S. Buckingham described
his visit of 1816 to Jaffa, which "has all the appearances of a poor
village, and every part of it that we saw was of corresponding madness.".
Buckingham described Ramle,
"where, as throughout the greater part of Palestine, the ruined portion
seemed more extensive then that which was inhabited.". After a visit in
1817 - 1818, travelers reported that there was not "a single boat of any
description on that lake (Tiberius)". (J. S. Buckingham, Travels in
Palestine, p 146).
French poet, Alphonse de
Lamartine, 1835 A.D writes: "Outside the gates of Jerusalem we saw indeed
no living object. Heard no living sound. We found the same void, the same
silence that we should have found before the entombed gates of Pompeii or of
Greece. A complete eternal silence reigns in the town, in the highways, in the
country; the tomb of a whole people.".
British Counsel in
Palestine reported in 1857: "The country is in a considerable degree empty
of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of
population".
In 1863 Samuel Clemens
writes: "a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but given over
wholly to weeds - a silent mournfull expanse .... A desolation is here that not
even imagination can grace wih the pomp of life and action... We never saw a
human being on the whole route." (The Innocence Abroad).
In 1867, Mark Twain
described the Jezerel Valley now verdant in Galilee as being devoid of a single
village; the Galilee "unpeopled desert; Jericho is a moldering ruin;
Bethlehem as untended by any living creature"; and "renowned
Jerusalem itself a pauper village." "Palestine sits in ashes,"
he lamented. "It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land....Palestine sits
in sackcloth and ashes.... desolate and unlovely...it is a dreamland...desolate
country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent
mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace
with the pomp of life and action....We never saw a human being on the whole
route....There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the
cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the
country.". (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, pp. 349).
Historian and writer De
Haas records: "The real source of the interest in the problem was the
condition of Palestine; empty, silent, waste, ruin between 1840 and 1880"
(De Haas, History, p. 407).
In 1840, Jerusalem's
population of 15,000 of whom 8,000 Jews, 4,500 Muslims, and the rest
Christians. (No. 238, report of Commerce of Jerusalem during the year 1863,
F.O. 195/808, May 1864).
The Arabs unfounded claim
that Jerusalem was always predominately Arab-Muslim territory is negated by the
statistics:
1844 Jews 7,120 Moslems 5,000 Christians 3,390
1896 Jews 28,112 Moslems
8,560 Christians 8,748
1922 Jews 33,971 Moslems
13,413 Christians 14,699
1948 Jews 100,000 Muslims
40,000 Christians 25,000
1967 Jews 195,700 Muslims
54,963 Christians 12,646
1983 Jews 300,000 Muslims
105,000 Christians 15,000
(Turkish Census 1844;
Calendar of Palestine 1895; British Census 1962; Israel Central Bureau;
Jerusalem Municiplality Report).
In 1880, the American
consul in Jerusalem reported the area was continuing its historic decline.
"The population and wealth of Palestine has not increased during the last
forty years," he said.
These numbers are also
confirmed by the British Consul in Jerusalem 1863 report.
De Hass writes: "The
real source of the interest in the problem was the condition of Palestine;
empty, silent, waste, ruin between 1840 and 1880" (De Haas, History, p.
407).
Carl Herman Voss writes:
"In the twelve and a half centuries between the Arab conquest in the
seventh centuries and the beginning of the Jewish return in the 1880's,
Palestine was laid waste. It's ancient canal and irrigation system were
destroyed and the wondrous fertility of which the Bible spoke vanished into
desert and desolation...Under the Ottoman Empire of the Turks, the policy of
disfoilation continued; the hillsides were denuded of trees and the valleys
robbed of their topsoil" (The Palestine Problem Today, Israel and It's
Neighbors, Boston, 1953, p. 13).
1889 Thirty thousand out of
40,000 people in Jerusalem are Jews.
Ernst Frankenstine "It
was in 1878, Harsh conditions forced many groups to immigrate to Palestine;
Circassian, Algerians, Egyptians, Druses, Turks, Kurds, Bosnians, and others.
141,000 settled Muslims living in all of Palestine (all areas) in 1882, at
least 25% of those 141,000 were new comers who arrived after 1831 from the
Egyptian conquest." (Ernst Frankenstine, Justice for my people, London,
Nicholson and Watson, 1943 p. 127).
All these people came no
less than 150 years ago and were not even Arabs, and even the Arab immigrant
clans like Al-Nashasheebi, Al-Khalidi, and Al-Husseni settled in Palestine in
the same period and were given the status of "Efendi" which made them
an upper class taking over the lands while the rest of the lower class
"Falaheen" were exploited.
There is left little doubt
from the historic and biblical facts that the land remained a desolation.
The great majority of what
are called "the Palestinian Arabs" in fact are of a very recent
origin starting in the nineteenth century by recent immigration from many
nations most of which are not even Arab.
And recent history:
The Report of the Palestine
Royal Commission quotes an account of the Maritime Plain in 1913:
"The road leading from
Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and
carts...no orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one
reached [the Jewish village of] Yabna [Yavne]....Houses were all of mud. No
windows were anywhere to be seen....The ploughs used were of wood....The yields
were very poor....The sanitary conditions in the village were horrible. Schools
did not exist....The western part, towards the sea, was almost a desert....The
villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages
were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many
villages were deserted by their inhabitants.".
Lewis French, the British
Director of Development wrote of Palestine: "We found it inhabited by
fellahin who lived in mud hovels and suffered severely from the prevalent
malaria....Large areas...were uncultivated....The fellahin, if not themselves
cattle thieves, were always ready to harbor these and other criminals. The
individual plots...changed hands annually. There was little public security,
and the fellahin's lot was an alternation of pillage and blackmail by their
neighbors, the Bedouin."
Surprisingly, many people
who were not sympathetic to the Zionist cause believed the Jews would improve
the condition of Palestinian Arabs. For example, Dawood Barakat, editor of the
Egyptian paper AlAhram, wrote: "It is absolutely necessary that an entente
be made between the Zionists and Arabs, because the war of words can only do
evil. The Zionists are necessary for the country: "The money which they
will bring, their knowledge and intelligence, and the industriousness which
characterizes them will contribute without doubt to the regeneration of the
country."
Even a leading Arab
nationalist believed the return of the Jews to their homeland would help
resuscitate the country. According to Sherif Hussein, the guardian of the
Islamic Holy Places in Arabia:
"The resources of the
country are still virgin soil and will be developed by the Jewish immigrants.
One of the most amazing things until recent times was that the Palestinian used
to leave his country, wandering over the high seas in every direction. His
native soil could not retain a hold on him, though his ancestors had lived on
it for 1000 years. At the same time we have seen the Jews from foreign
countries streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, America.
The cause of causes could not escape those who had a gift of deeper insight.
They knew that the country was for its original sons (abna'ihilasliyin), for
all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland. The return of these
exiles (jaliya) to their homeland will prove materially and spiritually [to be]
an experimental school for their brethren who are with them in the fields,
factories, trades and in all things connected with toil and labor."
1911 Baedeker's guide
reports Jerusalem's total population as 70,000, i.e., 45,000 Jews, 15,000
Christians and 10,000 Muslims.
King Hussein foresaw, the
regeneration of Palestine, and the growth of its population, came only after
Jews returned in massive numbers. The Jewish population increased by 470,000
between World War I and World War II while the non-Jewish population rose by
588,000. In fact, the permanent non-Jewish population increased 120 percent
between 1922 and 1947.
This rapid growth was a
result of several factors. One was immigration from neighboring
states-constituting 37 percent of the total immigration to pre-state Israel-by
non-Jews who wanted to take advantage of the higher standard of living the Jews
had made possible. The Arab population also grew because of the improved living
conditions created by the Jews as they drained malarial swamps and brought
improved sanitation and health care to the region. Thus, for example, the
Muslim infant mortality rate fell from 201 per thousand in 1925 to 94 per
thousand in 1945 and life expectancy rose from 37 years in 1926 to 49 in 1943.
In fact, the non-Jewish
population increased the most in cities with large Jewish populations that had
created new economic opportunities. From 1922-1947, the non-Jewish population
increased 290 percent in Haifa, 131 percent in Jerusalem and 158 percent in
Jaffa. The growth in Arab towns was more modest: 42 percent in Nablus, 78
percent in Jenin and 37 percent in Bethlehem.
As Hussein foresaw, the
regeneration of Palestine, and the growth of its population, came only after
Jews returned in massive numbers. The Jewish population increased by 470,000
between World War I and World War II while the non-Jewish population rose by
588,000. In fact, the permanent Arab population increased 120 percent between
1922 and 1947, only when the Jews settled the land.
For the last 40 centuries,
Arabs ruled the land less then one century. If time is to be used as a valid
claim, and I supported the Arab movement, I'd rather drop this claim and find
another answer.
▲
THE PALESTINIANS, ARE THEY, ISHMAELITES, OR PHILISTINES?
Common Palestinian claim:
"Today's Palestinians are the descendants of the
Canaanites".
" We know that there wasn't any Canaanite holocaust.
What happened to their descendents?"
"Palestine is in the Bible: "Yea, and what have
ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye
render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I
return your recompence upon your own head;"" [Joel 3:4]
Palestinian claims vary
depending on the issue. If the question is about who was there first, then the
Canaanite claim is proposed to show that the Palestinians were there before,
and if the question is who legally deserve it, then the Arab issue is brought up.
So it all depends on what type of propaganda is being promoted, yet both views
are in great error.
With the biblical evidence
confirmed by history and decades of archeological research, the Bible has been
proven the most accurate book on Middle Eastern history. In it is recorded
God's plan for Canaan and it's peoples. In Exodus 33:1-3:
"Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the
people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants. I will
send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites,
Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites".
Num 21:2-3:
"Then made
this vow to the LORD: "If you will deliver these people into our hands, we
will totally destroy their cities. The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave
the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so
the place was named Hormah". And today the Palestinian people cling to the
idea that they are a descendant of the Canaanites, Jebusites, and
Philistines."
Why do many Palestinians
cling to being Canaanite anyway? The first occupation of Canaan (the Promised
Land) by the newly created nation of Israel resulted in the revelation to man
that God was One God: "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is One." This
was a startling revelation in the midst of the nations who were worshipping
innumerable "gods", yet clinging to the rejected heathen tribes prior
to Israel is not any honor. So why does Yasser Arafat and his cabinet insist
that they are of Canaanite and Jebusite origin? At the same time they also
insist that they are Arabs as well and even to the extent of making Jesus a
Palestinian revolutionary.
How could Yasser Arafat and
the Palestinians be Canaanites and Arabs at the same time? Even the Christian
educators of today's Palestine are plagued with Replacement Theology
propaganda, in corresponding with Mr. Bishara Awad, Dean of Bethlehem Bible
College he argues: "You must try reading the New Testament, not the Old
when looking at such things [Israel in Prophecy]."
As far as Joel 3:4, a
biblical verse that cursed the Philistines is used to prove the mention of
Palestine. The Hebrew word translated in some versions for Palestine is
"Palasheth" which is Philistia the land of the biblical Philistines,
a non-Semetic people who lived in a small portions SW on the coast land, they
only included Joppa, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza. This claim certainly will
cause a major problem since today's Palestinians claim to originate themselves
as Semetic Arabs while this group is non-Semetic. This contradiction should be
a major problem for Arab propagandists. To claim a land of promise by misusing
scripture attributing the land of promise to Ishmael, then to show that they
existed in the land before the Jews by jumping on the bandwagon of being
Philistines is a death blow for the Palestinian argument.
To address today's Israel
as the land of the Philistines would require a recreation of the other seven
nations that made up the land of Canaan. How does one relate today's supposedly
Semitic Palestinians to the non-Semitic Hevites, Perazites, and Jebusites?
No one today can even trace
any culture, language, religion, family origin to any Canaanites from
Palestine, especially when there is ample historical evidence showing the
"true" origin of today's Palestinians as we have shown.
In 135 A.D by Emperor
Hadrian applied the term Palestine to the Land of Israel as a propaganda ploy
to erase Israel his enemy and place Israel's enemy instead The Philistines with
a new Latin twist (Palestine). He replaced the shrines of the Jewish Temple and
the Sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem with temples to pagan deities. Hadrian was
an enemy of the Bible, the question would be, if we support Hadrian changing
the name to Palestine, why then not support the other changes, and convert the
holy places to pagan shrines or at least the pagan names that he forced on
these places?
Christian Arabs who focus
only on The New Testament instead of the Old ignore the fact that In the New
Testament, the term Palestine is never used, only Israel, and no matter how
they look at scripture it always seems they have a problem fitting it to
support their political agenda. Even in the End Times, believers in the Israel
areas are asked to: "But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye
into another: for verily I say to you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities
of Israel, till the Son of man shall have come. (Matt. 10:23)
So the land is clearly
Israel before the coming of our Lord, while He came (Matt. 2:20-21), and just
before His second coming as we have seen in Matt 10:23.
And for Bishara Awad the
Dean of Bethlehem Bible College who asks believers to look at the New Testament
since Israel is replaced by the church, the Lord says in The New Testament:
"Hath God cast away
His people? God forbid. God hath not cast away His people whom He
foreknew." (Romans 11:1-2).
"Thus saith the Lord,
who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of
the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The
Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the
Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me
forever. Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the
foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the
seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.".
This shall put the whole
matter to the rest.
▲
THE JEWS OF RUSSIA
Common opinion:
"The Jews of Russia
and Eastern Europe are originally Khazars from Turky who converted to Judaism
in the 8th century".
PLO Television:
"Most of the Khazars
[a Turkish tribe that converted to Judaism in medieval times] are the
Ashkenazic Jews who arrived in Palestine. As Allah is my witness, in my blood
flows more of the Children of Israel and the ancient Hebrews than in the blood
of Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu." (Palestinian Arab historian Jarid
al-Kidwa, PLO TV)
The Jews of Khazaria
recounts the eventful history of the Turkic kingdom of Khazaria, which was
located in eastern Europe and flourished as an independent state from about 650
to 1016. (The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Alan Brook)
Ancient communities of Jews
existed in the Crimean Peninsula way before the Khazars moved to the area, a
fact proven by much archaeological evidence. It is significant that Crimea came
under the control of the Khazars later on. The Crimean Jewish communities were
later supplemented by refugee Jews fleeing the Mazdaq rebellion in Persia, the
persecutions of Byzantine emperors Leo III and Romanus I Lecapenus.
Before the Khazars moved to
Crimea original Jews came to Khazaria from modern-day Uzbekistan, Armenia,
Hungary, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and many other places, as documented by
al-Masudi, the Schechter Letter, Saadiah Gaon, and the Arabic writer Dimashqi.
Jews from the former
Russian Empire are descended from a mixture of Khazar Jews, German Jews, Greek
Jews, and Slavs. (The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Alan Brook).
Also, this argument by no
means discounts the Israeli nation as being foreign. The Jewish people never
assimilated into the gentile world while the Khazars was quite different, it
was a gentile nation who assimilated to follow the Jewish faith.
If the Jews of Eastern
Europe and Russia descended strictly from the Khazars what can be said of the
recent genetic research showing the lineage of the Kohanim?
Prof. Karl Skorecki, a
senior nephrologist (blood specialist) at Rambam Hospital in Haifa is the head
of molecular medicine at Israel's Technion's medical school. He and his
colleagues published their findings in Nature, a British science journal. This
new genetic research shows the vast majority of kohanim, the Jewish priestly
class, to be descended from a single ancestor-scientific confirmation of an
oral tradition passed down through 3,000 years .
A worldwide project has
been conducted using cutting-edge genetic technology proved that at least 70
percent of kohanim families (5% of Jewish men), have a common set of markers on
their Y chromosome, the chromosome every male receives almost unchanged from
his father -and, in effect, from his father, and father's father before him.
This genetic evidence was found in kohanim from both the Ashkenazi (European)
and the Sephardi (Spanish and Middle Eastern) branches of the worldwide Jewish
population. This is a strong proof that the Aaronic priesthood existed in the
distant past as the Bible relates.
This provides fascinating
evidence that the Jewish priesthood predated the division of the Jewish people
into the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi branches, these two major ethnic groups,
which occurred approximately a 1,000 years ago during the Middle Ages.
The researchers' concluded
that the tradition of the Jewish priesthood (kehunah), has a genetic basis that
does point to a single ancestor - possibly Aaron.
David Goldstein, an expert
in the field of evolutionary genetics at Oxford University, stated: "It
looks like this chromosomal type was a constituent of the ancestral Hebrew
population,"
"It was incredibly
exciting to find something that could be tracing paternally-inherited traits
over 40 to 50 generations, three or four thousand years of history. This is the
first time ever we have been able to make a correlation with the ethnographic
record over this time scale. Some people keep records that go back three, maybe
four generations. But 50 generations!" . . .
▲
WHOSE LAND – ISHMAEL OR ISAAC?
Common opinion:
"God promised the land
to Abraham and his seed. Since Ishmael is his seed, they too have the right to
the land of Israel."
"Ishmael was Abraham's
seed [Genesis 21:13]. To whom was the promise of the land made? To Abraham and
his seed, no exceptions [Genesis 12:17, 13:15, 15:18]. Thus now, even from the
Bible, the Arabs are included in the promise".
"Does God play
favorites?"
"Is God a Zionist
because He has been supernaturally assisting the Jews?"
God uses the word
"My" in two connections: "My people Israel" and "My
land". In each case He, in a particular way, identifies Himself with them:
"I will establish My
covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants
after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants
after you. The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as
an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be
their God." (Genesis 17:7-8)
God promises to give the
whole land to Abraham and his descendants for an everlasting possession. This
is established by a covenant of God and God declares in Psalm 89:34 His
covenant He will never break. But to which of his descendants? Ishmael? Isaac?
or both?
Mr. Chapman tries in his
book to connect the land by Ishmael since he is a descendant of Abraham.
The Bible clearly puts to
rest the issue when God told Isaac:
"Stay in this land
(the land of Israel) for a while and I will be with you and bless you for to
you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath
I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the
stars in the sky and I will give them all these lands, and through your
offspring all nations on earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 26:3-4).
Yet later on, God restricts
the same promise to Jacob (Israel) alone:
"The land I gave to
Abraham and Isaac I also give to you and I will give this land to your
descendants after you." (Genesis 35:12)
Notice that the promise
runs through a certain, specific line - from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and on
to their descendants. In Psalm 105 the psalmist uses the following terms to
describe the extent of God's commitment to this purpose: covenant, word,
command, oath, decree and everlasting covenant. There is no language used in
the Bible that could give stronger emphasis to God's commitment.
"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.'" (Psalm 105:7-11)
So all three connect,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) forever. The word "everlasting" makes
null and void any other claim to the land. To say that the land is no more an
issue is in contradiction to God's word regardless how angry people get over
God's decision. If we believe the Bible to be the Word of God, there can remain
no doubt as to God's purpose for the land. Furthermore, nothing has changed in
God's purpose from the time that it was spoken until this time of restoration
which was predicted by Jeremiah:
"Write in a book all
the words I have spoken to you. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when
I will bring My people, Israel and Judah, back from captivity and restore
them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess, says the Lord."
(Jeremiah 30:2-3)
While if we look at the
context of scripture, we can easily see who this seed is:
"But you, O Israel, my
servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took
you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said,
'You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you." Isaiah
41:8,9 Jacob was chosen, not Ishmael or the Arabs.
"Thus saith the Lord,
who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of
the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The
Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the
Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me
forever.(Jer 31:35).
By this we know that the
seed of Abraham is meant Jacob, and the land is Israel, as it is exactly
mentioned and fulfilled by most of the Biblical Prophecy in both Old and New
Testaments.
If Ishmael's promoters way
of confused argumentation is accepted, Jesus the seed of promise can end up
being an Ishmaelite, since God told Abraham concerning the Messianic blessing
that out of his seed the whole world will be blessed (Gen 22:18).
Yet ignorance of scripture
is not an excuse with God, since the rest of scripture as we presented directs
us to the rest of the story as to whom this seed will be. The same way the
promises of the land in the Abrahamic Covenant is strictly given to Jacob who
was later called Israel. I don't need to quote more verses here, since the
entire Bible is written with this promise in God's mind.
The Bible concentrates on
Israel as the Chosen Nation, the repository of the Covenants, the channel of
the Messianic Hope, the custodian of the divinely approved Temple, the keeper
of the oracles of God, and the capital nation of the returning crucified and
risen King of Kings. Thus page after page, book after book in the Old and New
Testaments deal with these issues that mean little or nothing to world powers
or historians. Israel is the central theme of the Bible. "Thus saith the
Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations,
to which they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them
into their own land (Ezek. 37:21).".
So these promises of land
and return clearly involves Israel not Ishmael. The question is why are these
Christians trying to fit the Bible to match Muslim claims? Even a book like the
Quran was vague as to who was the child of promise was, but the Bible was so
clear it left no doubt. The only doubt is left, are what the false seeds
Replacement Theology are trying to plant.
The statement by
Pope John Paul II that the "shepherds of Bethlehem" when
Christianity was founded, 2000 years ago, were the "ancestors" of
today's Palestinian Arabs was false. In fact, those shepherds were Jews, not
Arabs.
▲
THE NEW TESTAMENT ENDS THE LAND ISSUE
Common opinion:
"Jesus never mentioned
Israel being in the land, this is a Christian Zionist invention."
In page 136, Mr. Chapman
writes: "He[Jesus] said nothing at all about what would follow the times
of the Gentiles, and didn't give any clue about the significance of Jerusalem
coming once again under Jewish rule".
At first, in Christian
theology Jesus is author of all scripture and everything created: "All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Tim 3:16-17).
We cannot isolate Jesus
first mission (redemption) from the rest of scripture concluding that God did
away with the rest of scripture fulfillment.
Israel will be His focus
prior to and after His second coming written in much detail. In fact ALL the
Bible, OLD and NEW Testaments with the prophets, Christ, and the apostles when
speaking in the context of Christ's second coming, in ALL scripture Israel is
in the land as they were in His first coming.
This is so obvious in every
verse and every prophecy:
Was not Christ to rule
Israel Matthew 2:6: "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the
least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that
shall rule my people Israel.
So when Christ is to rule
Israel in this verse were would Israel be? This "two fold" prophecy
with the rule over Israel part is obviously of His second coming with Israel in
the land.
Even the Replacement
Theology advocates would agree that this is a two fold prophecy, yet they will
not accept the "other" "two fold" prophecies?
One could question:
"But these verses pertain to the Jews returning after Christ establishes
His Kingdom, not before".
Is that so?
Matthew 10:23: "But
whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to
you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of
Man comes."
Another "two
fold" prophecy. Obviously when Jesus says "until the Son of Man
comes" pertains to His "second" coming since He is there talking
to them. How is it then the believers will not "finish going through"
until "The Son of Man comes"?
And who is He telling them
to witness to? None other than Jews "But he answered and said, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(Matt 15:24).
And what where is Israel
before "The Son of Man comes"?
What did Jesus tell the
Jews of their Disapora?
"O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth,
till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matt
23:37-39).
Jesus was talking to them
of Jerusalem while He was in Jerusalem, and He will not return to establish the
Kingdom unless they are in Jerusalem crying "Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord". This return to Israel with Jews in it, is
emphasized by every prophet in the Old Testament and all the way into the Book
of Revelation.
Matthew 19:28: "And Jesus
said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the
regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Where is Israel being
judged in this verse? And where will His glorious Throne be?
"At that time they
shall call Jerusalem the throne of the lord; AND ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE
GATHERED UNTO IT, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they
walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart." (Jeremiah 3:17)
The Church will return with
Christ to Israel, and will rule with Him for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-5).
Christ and the disciples will rule over the 12 tribes of Israel in the
restoration. Thus, Israel has not been forgotten in God's plan.
To add confusion to his
readers Mr. Chapman on the next page states regarding Luke's testimony "we
had hoped that he[Christ] was the one who was going to redeem Israel"
(Luke 24:21), and quoting Luke 24:25-27 regarding the fulfillment of the
scripture in His Messiaship to which he concluded that "He wanted them to
understand that all that the prophets had said about Israel and it's redemption
had been fulfilled in himself", yet without supplying any verse to this
statement he isolates Luke 24:25-27 and since it has no mention of Israel's
redemption to mean that Israel's national redemption is no more, by that a
return to the land is null and void.
How could a return be null
and void when Christ spoke of predictions about the future of Jerusalem:
"And they shall fall
by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and
Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles [non-Jews], until the fullness
of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24).
While Replacement Theology
advocates claim that the "fullness of the Gentiles" is the end of
Israel, Christ clearly made this verse plain that a Jewish rule (non-Gentile)
is what is destined for Israel. Any attempt to make this fit the Church of
Replacement Theology requires surgical procedures to scripture which will prove
fatal to whomever tries it.
Let's look at the context
of the verse in Luke 21:24. Jesus is speaking concerning Jerusalem and Israel,
it's destruction, desolation, Diaspora, and return. The part the author ignores
is the previous verse, in context we can see clearly: "And they [Israel]
will fall by the edge of the sword[destruction], and be away captive into all
nations[Diaspora], and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles[desolation]
until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled[end of Gentile beginning of
Jew]".
This is confirmed leaving
no doubt in Romans:
"For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise
in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it
is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take
away their sins. (Rom 11:25-27)
This national redemption is
confirmed perfectly when the Times of the Gentiles is fulfilled. Reading the
passage in context and the previous verse in Romans 11 sheds much light here.
Jesus is giving them the 'full' picture, He is showing them the 'full circle'
of events in one single sentence; fall, desolation, Diaspora, then Return. This
"full circle" scenario is strictly and only for Israel and the Jewish
people.
The Gentile world will end
in judgment, Joel chapter 3 is strictly over Israel and it's division. In
Matthew 25:32 "All the nations[Gentiles] will be gathered, and this
judgment mentioned by Christ is also describing the treatment of the Jews
during the Tribulation Period and the world's persecution of Israel's believers.
The problems such writers
get into concluding that Jesus was "silent about the future of the
land", is isolation of verses from the context of scripture, when the
simple truth is that Christ on His first coming came to die for sins as
concluded by the author himself. Jesus instructed His disciples to "go
only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel" and He reminded a Gentile
that "Salvation is through the Jews" (John 4:22). Subsequently,
however, it became evident that salvation was designed for all mankind,
beginning from Jerusalem.
Yet much emphasis was made
on salvation by no means negates the many other references of His second coming
were the land is mentioned. Isolating scripture is like looking at one piece of
a puzzle were only a piece of a cardboard is seen. The excitement is found when
we put everything together.
Colin Chapman in his book
"Whose Promised Land" instead of shedding light attempts to shuffle
different issues together to make his point stick, his obvious mixing between
"The Kingdom of Heaven" and the Restoration of the Jews to Israel is
obvious. On page 127 he compares Matthew 8:10-12 "And I say unto you, That
many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." with Isaiah 43:5-6 "Fear
not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee
from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not
back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth".
Mr. Chapman argues that
these verses speak of the same event "The Kingdom of Heaven". So he
argues that the usage of Isaiah speaking of Israel's return is invalid since
the two verses are in perfect harmony.
But are they?
Matthew speaks of the
"many" while Isaiah strictly speaks of Jacob's "seed"
Israel, but by combining the two an attempt is made to twist scripture to make
a return only of the believers in the Kingdom of Heaven and ignoring Israel's
return before God sanctifies her.
The Kingdom of Heaven as
Unger's Bible Dictionary describes it, to be: "The Kingdom of Heaven more
precisely "The Kingdom of the Heavens", is a term descriptive of any
kind of ruler ship God may assert on The Earth at a given period ... According
to Matt 13 the present gospel age represents the mystery form of the kingdom
since the kingdom of heaven is no other then the rule of God on Earth...".
"Thou shall arise and
have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, yes the set time, is come...
When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory... This shall be
written for the generation to come... .To declare the name of the Lord in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem... When the people are gathered together, and the
kingdoms, to serve the Lord"' (Psalm 102:13-22).
Here the Lord(Christ) build
up[the land of] Zion, He shall appear in His glory[The Kingdom, second coming],
while the kingdoms[the world] come and serve the Lord in Jerusalem. In light of
this verse and many others, the author of "Whose Promised Land"
continues: "Luke's version of the discourse therefore points to the same
conclusions as the discourse in Mark: that Jesus was silent about the future of
the land".
▲
THE PROPHECIES OF ISRAEL FULFILLED IN THE PAST?
Common claim:
The Bible already fulfilled
the desolation and return of the Jews after the Babylonian Captivity. The
claims many modern interpreters make of the recent establishment of the state
of Israel have no foundation in the Bible since all the prophecies they use
pertain to the return after the Babylonian captivity after which there will be
a Diaspora with no return, therby this modern state is not biblical.
▲
BIBLE CONFIRMATION
The "common" view
held by the majority of today's world who stand against the recent
establishment of the state of Israel is as it has been in the past the view
which had more support since Israel's first entrance as slaves from Egypt, and
their second entrance from Babylon were not popular either.
God calls Israel
specifically "My Land". Above all other pieces of territory in the
earth God has laid a special claim, for His sovereign purposes, to that little
strip of territory which is Israel. In Ezekiel He warns the northern invader:
" to turn thine hand
upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are
gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in
the midst of the land... In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against My
land so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before
their eyes." (Ezekiel 38:16)
While the "Gog and
Magog" prophecy is agreed by most scholars as have not yet happened and
will occur in the End Times proving that Israel must be in the land prior to
the fulfillment of this prophecy. This prophecy and many others which has not
happened assure every Bible believers that Israel WILL have another return
before the end.
In the "Gog and
Magog" prophecy Israel is described as:
- God's land
- Became desolate
- Then inhabited.
- In Ezekiel and all the
prophets who describe a "gathering from the nations" not from Assyria or Babylonia.
- The subject of Ezekiel 38
is a battle between Israel and many nations who never attacked Israel at once in
the past.
- This re-gathering to a
"desolate" land is an event in the far future from Ezekiel's time.
- Fact today are the very
enemies mentioned by name; Libya, Persia, Ethiopia, Rosh(Russia), and many
others who today hate Israel and accumulating much armaments in preparation
for battle and are likely to be invading Israel soon.
Again in Joel God declares:
"I will gather all nations and bring them down to
the valley of Jehoshaphat (which means 'the Lord judges'); then I will enter
into judgment against them concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for
they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land." (Joel
3:2).
The same points can be made
from this verse, and an additional important factor "The division of the
land" which is taking place currently after 1993 Oslo Peace Accord.
These prophecies are so
clear and plain that they leave little or no room for questions.
To show how absurd the
doubters of these prophecies are an example of such a book "Whose Promised
Land" by Colin Chapman, on page 115, he provides the "Scholars
interpretation of the land", in it he shares allegoric interpretation by a
certain philosopher-theologian Philo who allegorizes the prophecies about Israel's
final re-gathering to the land of Israel and changes the meaning to
"promised land" to "fruitful wisdom".
At first we ask, where in
the Bible that God intended that certain scholars interpret scripture? Also,
since there are many scholars who give opposing views on this issue, what makes
this one the correct interpretation?
We are not saying that we
don't need scholars. What we are saying is that we need to weed through and
sift carefully what certain scholars write. Today we even have scholars who
deny the holocaust ever existed and many believe them and follow such absurd
teaching.
Here is a scenario which
presents a problem. Assume that we are living in the time of Christ, and we are
to adhere to common interpretation of Messianic prophecies believed by the
masses at the time of Christ, one of which that Messiah in His first coming
must establish Himself to be a king over Israel. This was a "common"
interpretation by many Rabbinical schools which even caused the Romans to fix a
sign on the cross as "Jesus King of the Jews".
Other Rabbinical schools
thought there will be two Messiahs, Messiah son of Joseph (suffering Messiah),
and Messiah son of David (King Messiah). Yet many viewed the plain scripture in
light of "occurring events" and accepted Jesus as Messiah while the
majority followed the "flawed common interpretation". Replacement
Theology advocates do believe that these "few" and "less
common" ideas who saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies
for His first coming were correct, as to them Jesus was the Messiah, and if
today's anti-Israel advocates were living at the time, they too would
re-interpret scripture according to new findings that Jesus came, and His
coming shed new light on the meaning of the Messianic verses. Today these
advocates agree with pro-Israel advocates on the interpretation of the Messianic
prophecies despite the many rabbinical schools errors. Why not then open there
minds to the Christian Zionist understanding of scripture?
Facts and new findings
should always be studied and compared with scripture. God reveals to us in His
own timing His plan on how certain prophecies are to be fulfilled. So to say
that we must stick with "old" and "common" interpretation
is in opposition to the reasoning of Replacement Theology advocates, since they
too agree that at times the "common" interpretations of the
"expert" San Hadrian schools were wrong, for they should have seen
that Messiah came first to die for sin, then come again at a later time to be
king and defeat the enemies of Israel as the Bible described. Why cannot they
see that there will be two Diasporas after they have established Israel and two
re-gatherings?
The Jews on the other hand
would be re-gathered in unbelief at first, then later would be on His second
coming redeemed, which is obvious in scripture. Why then not use the same logic
to interpret Messianic prophecies when looking at Israel? Why not look at the
Bible in light of occuring events? Is it possible the many have been wrongly
interpreting Israel?
Is it possible that the Jew
after the Holocaust decide after almost being totally anihilated to rise to
power, come to Israel 2 years later just in order to make the Bible fit their
wishes? Did Israel fulfill these on purpose? Hardly likely in light of the historic
fact that the Jews were almost anihilated from the face of the Earth.
Bible Prophecy was sent by
God without side interpretation or even scholarly interpretation, it was
intended to be interpreted as it said it should, firstly by the Bible itself
with cross referencing of the events and teachings, also by the fulfillments:
"Let them bring forth
and show us what will happen; Let them show us the former things, what they
were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; Or declare to
us the things to come." (Isaiah 41:22).
So the "latter end of
them" would be the fulfillment, since we cannot see how God will fulfill
prophecy we must wait and see, if the predictions ever come to pass then we
know that it was God's will, it is only then that we see how exactly the plan
of God is carried out.
In order to see the full
picture, one must look at a chapter or two. In the following we will examine
Zechariah 12 and 14:
Zech 12:2-6:
"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."
The nations of the world
will surround Jerusalem:
"though all the people
of the earth be gathered together against it. 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. In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with
astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the
house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. And
the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem
shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. In that day will I make
the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch
of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the
right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own
place, even in Jerusalem."
How could we have governors
of Judah unless we have Israel in the land? Especially when verse emphasizes to
all that "JERUSALEM SHALL BE INHABITED AGAIN IN HER OWN PLACE EVEN
JERUSALEM." while verse 3 emphasized that at this re-gathering "THOUGH
ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH BE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST IT."
This has never happened
unless we have a world United Nations, and we ask, when did the
"WORLD" ever gather against Jerusalem while the Jews were in Israel?
The Gentiles will come against the Jews in a final showdown, yet again, and
against all odds the Jew will be triumphant:
Zech 12:8-10:
"In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants
of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David;
and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David,
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of
supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
The "Lord" who
was "pierced" (verse 10), will fight for Judah. When has the Lord who
was pierced fought for Judah in a battle? This is obviously His second coming,
and obviously when Israel will be in the land. Then Christ will pour upon
Israel His Holy Spirit and has mercy on them, thus a national redemption to
Israel is fulfilled.
Zech 13:6-14:4:
"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds
in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the
house of my friends."
The pierced Messiah will
have the signs left on His hands, Israel wonders of these wounds.
Zech 14:1-4:
"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh,
and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all
nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the
houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the
city."
Again "ALL
NATIONS".
In this battle there will
be some losses for Israel, rape, pillage, and half Jerusalem will be taken. The
World's mock trial and the sinister plots finally culminate in an attempt to
execute the world's scapegoat.
"Then shall the LORD
go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of
battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is
before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst
thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great
valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it
toward the south." Israel's defender will finally intervene, and His feet
like a mighty judge's hammer, strikes the earth for His judgment. The Lord's
FEET will stand on the Mount of Olives? When did the Lord have feet?
Christ in the flesh at His
second coming will defend Israel and assure it's right to the land and it's
eternal existence, in fact Christ comes to the aid of Israel to fulfill His
promise: "And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities and inhabit them...and I will plant them upon
their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have
given them, sayeth the Lord thy God." (Amos 9:14,15). "AND THEY SHALL
NO MORE BE PULLED UP".
And here is the final blow
to any who argue the Biblical support of Israel's restoration from the
Babylonian captivity as the only biblically supported re-gathering. How can it
be true that there was a Diaspora after Christ's first coming and this verse
strictly emphasizes that Israel "SHALL NO MORE BE PULLED UP"? At
which regathering is Israel promised never to be scattered?
This is the dilemma of the
nations, several wars and Israel winning against all odds, even when the whole
world goes against her, the plans will be destroyed when God (Christ) Himself
intervenes.
These verses and tens
others have been ignored by the author, on page 119 Zechariah is skipped over
with no mention of Messiah's defense for Israel, and on page 120 the author on
a section "Hope for the Nation" with no verses or references to
anything in Zechariah or even to anything in scripture concluded his own
summary what the prophets said, Chapman commented "Would these promises
ever be fulfilled? If so, when and how?".
The sound of doubts and
empty hope "If so" causes confusion not edification of the Body of
Christ, especially when on page 112 the author even puts doubt on the
authenticity of the book of Isaiah "Whether the rest of the book[Isaiah]
(chapter 40-46) was written by the same writer or by a later writer during the
exile", which is a whole other discussion usually taken by liberals,
atheists, and agnostics who argue that Isaiah was not even the author. This
accusation was shattered, especially when the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed that the
book of Isaiah had not even a break between the alleged "two
Isaiahs".
An issue hardly deserves
the recommendation of Christianity Today on the back of the cover. Indeed one
wonders the degree of the Churches fall to support this?
On page 117, 118 the author
only references Ezekiel with scattered comments and half sentences ignoring
much truth that opposes his views:
Ezek 11:17: "Therefore
say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and
assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give
you the land of Israel.".
In Ezekiel 20:41 it says,
"I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples
and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered."
"Prophesy therefore
concerning the Land of Israel and say... I will settle you after your old
estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and you shall
know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 36:6,11)
First a re-gathering to the
land, then a re-gathering back to God "know that I am the Lord".
This is
"re-gathering" in unbelief is confirmed in another verse:
"But I had pity for my
holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned ... therefore, I do not this
for your sakes, 0 house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake ... and I will
sanctify my great name.. .and the heathen (Gentiles) shall know that I am the
Lord when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you
from among the heathen, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring
you into your own land. THEN will I sprinkle clean water upon you... A new
heart also will I give you..." (Ezekiel 36:21-26)
God gathers Israel for His
glory first then to sanctify them.
Ezekiel 34: 12-15,28 reads:
"As the shepherd seeks out his flock on the day that he is among his
scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the
places where they were scattered. And I will bring them out from the peoples
and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land. I will
feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and all the inhabited
places of the country. And they shall no longer be a prey to the nations. Nor
shall other lands devour them. But they shall dwell safely and no one shall
make them afraid."
God will feed them "on
the mountains of Israel" and they "shall no longer be a prey to the
nations[Gentiles] Nor shall other lands devour them. Is it not true that Israel
for two millennia were a "prey" to the Gentiles? How can we exchange
Israel to be the Church and make sense of these verses?
And again in Ezekiel 36:23
& 36: "And I will sanctify My great name which has been profaned among
the nations, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations shall know
that I am the LORD, says the LORD God, when I am hallowed in you before their
eyes. Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I the LORD
have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I the LORD have
spoken it and I will do it."
Ezekiel 39:29, "I will
not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit upon
the whole house of Israel,' says the LORD God." A full puzzle is seen, not
just one piece.
In light of these presented
evidence, this should make a turn in this case of whose promised land? As a
closing statement that could end any arguments a crucial question could be
asked: Where in scripture has the land been given to eventually be controled by
the mixed multitudes of the Palestinians? If only this question is answered,
this would end this discussion forever.
▲
ISRAEL'S VICTORY AGAINST THE ARABS - PSALM 83, THE MOST IGNORED PROPHECY
I have rarely read
publications discussing one of the most important verses regarding the rebirth
of Israel and it's struggle with her enemies, yet this prophecy is generally
ignored. The Arab Allies gather to destroy Israel as soon as it's born
"They have said,
"Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel
may be remembered no more.". (Psalm 83:4).
This destruction announced
by president Nasser of Egypt who declared, "Our basic goal is the
destruction of Israel". (Laqueur, op. cit., pp. 175-185). Azaam Pasha,
secretary-general of he Arab League announced, "This will be a war of
extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the mongolian
massacres and Crusades."
Psalm 83 describes these
nations as:
Edom, Moab, Ammon, children
of Lot: Currently Jordan and the Jordanian people (children of Lot).
Gebal: Current location in
Lebanon 25 miles N of Beirut (Unger, p 460)
The inhabitants of Tyre:
Currently the People of Lebanon. The reference to
"The people of Tyre", instead of using "Tyre", is likely
because Tyre would have been completly destroyed as prophecied in Ezekiel 26,
but the inhabitants still living in what is called today Lebanon.
Philistia: Gaza, Ekron,
Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gath. The Palestinians, who after the 1948 War of
Indepenance many of which settled as refugees on The West Bank.
Ishmaelites and Hagarites:
Currently The Arabs.
Assyria: Iraq.
Amalek: Southern Arabia or
possibly the Jordanians SW of The Dead Sea (Gen 14:7)
This prophecy uses either
the name of location or the name of a people, since certain people moved, and
other mixed occupy certain nations. If a nation is mentioned the prophecy could
have intended to focus on whatever peoples who occupy that land, and if a
people are mentioned would include whatever lands they currently occupy today.
Fulfillment: 1948 Arab
Israeli War, 1967 Six Days War, Israel triumphed which paralleled Israel's first
birth when Joshua had a Six Day War and on the seventh triumphed.
Evidence:
- In Psalm 83:5: "For they have consulted together
with one consent, they form a confederacy against you(Israel)".
- This is the only time that these nations and peoples
ever formed a "confederacy" alliance to fight Israel which culminated
in what is called the Arab-Israeli War, which was a united army.
- The loss of this alliance is also predicted in Psalm
83:16: "Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O Lord.".
- verse 4: "Come, and let us cut them off from being a
nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.". The usage of
"They have said" and "us" refers to the confederacy of nations
united in one voice. It is a remider of the Arab outcry to throw the Jews in
the Medditerranean Sea. To "cut off" in Biblical terms is to destroy.
"From being a nation", is obviously from
"becoming a nation" as to stop the rebirth of Israel. "That the
name of Israel be remembered no more" (verse 1).
- Assyria(Iraq) came to help the children of Lot (Jordan)
as Jordan requested Iraq for help during he war (verse 8).
The evidence of this
prophecy being the 1948 War is most amazing. The appeal that God makes to the
enemies of Israel is not one of hate, as it is an appeal to these nations to
reconcile with God and recognize His authority and will "That they may
seek Your name O Lord" (16) "That men may know that You [The God of
Israel], whose name alone is the Lord" (18).
We are reminded of Menachem
Begin's Prayer On his first visit to the liberated Western Wall, in 1967:
"G-D OF OUR FATHERS Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Lord of Hosts, be Thou our
help. Our enemies encompassed us about, yea they encompassed us about and arose
to destroy us as a people. Yet has their counsel been destroyed and their
schemes will not be accomplished.".
While I was a young boy in
Jericho, I still remember The American Council came from Jerusalem just as they
had information on a major war about to erupt. They started to evacuate all the
Americans in the area, since my mother was an American, they came to the
rescue, but my father refused and had to turn them down because he loved his
country.
The Six Day War began The
Jews captured old Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine. This was a great
disappointment to Arabs and Muslims worldwide. I still remember many things
during the war; the thunder of the bombs and chatter of machine guns that went
on day and night for six days.
Many Arab citizens in
Jericho started looting stores and houses as people ran and crossed the Jordan
river from fear of the Israelis. The Israeli soldiers announced that everyone
post a white flag on it's gate. The war was called the six day war because it
was won in six days and on the seventh day a Rabbi by the name of Goren blew
the ram's horn on the wailing wall in Jerusalem declaring the victory.
Many see this as a parallel
to Joshua when he went around the walls of Jericho six times, then on the
seventh day seven times, and on that day the priests blew the trumpets and
everyone shouted with one voice, then the walls came tumbling down, and the
Israelites took the city.
To my father it seemed that
the walls have tumbled down on him, during the war he was always listening to
the Jordanian radio station, he used to say that the Arabs are wining the war,
but he was listening to the wrong station, the Israeli station who was
announcing the truth of their soon coming victory, instead my father chose to
believe the Arabs who claimed that the Israelis are promoting propaganda.
The Arabs have been loosing
the wars against Israel exactly as the Bible prophesied in the examples I have
shown. The Quran teaches. I lived in Israel during the Six Day War, the P.L.O
resistance, the Jordanian black September civil war, the bloody wars in
Lebanon, and the war of Yom Kippur, with more blood spilt among ourselves and
with no hope to destroy Israel.
All these losses and we
still hoped for that one victory since that is all what it takes to destroy
them. Many Muslims in the land claim that Israel is God's punishment to them
for allowing bad government to rule the Islamic world. That is one reason why
we see attempts to topple Governments with majority Muslim population. The
Islamic world is on its way to try to destroy Israel. The best way to prove
this is to quote the Syrian president Hafez Asad:
"There are still one
hundred wars to come with Israel. All we need to defeat Israel is One".
The God of Israel promised
"and they shall not be pulled up", yet the Arab and Muslim world
will try again. God in the Bible promised that they will fail.
In verse 18 of Psalm 83,
"That men may know that You, whose name Alone is the Lord, Are the Most
High over all the earth". Here the Lord wants to redirect the Arabs to
himself (the true God), and Him Alone is the true God, that is the God of
Israel, and no one else. God's promises never changes, and he fulfills them to
the letter. Arabs think that the God of the Bible is biased towards the Jews, but
we can't avoid the many verses of punishment declared on Israel in the Bible;
After rejecting Christ the great "Diaspora" started and they were
scattered into all the earth, separated from their homeland, and far from
Jerusalem. God allowed them to be killed and tormented more than any other
people in the world. No other people in history tasted the agony of war and
pain more than the Jews, they have been in known in history to be the refugees
of the world, today they are finally home with very angry neighbours... as
usual.
▲
THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS BY THE ARABS
Common Palestinian opinion:
"The Arab hate towards
the Jews wasn't what forced the Jews into moving to Palestine, they are all
after the Jews entered Palestine forcefully in 1948, after the Jews started
killing our people".
"Before the promises
to create or before the existence of the state of Israel, did we do anything
against you[The Jews]? Please, ask the good Jews who lived in Morocco, Tunisia,
Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon Arab Muslims welcomed you always,
they did not fight with you for at least the last 1000 years. ".
(Al-Bushra Website, an Arab Christian view)
Colin Chapman in
"Whose Promised Land" ignores the most important factor of Jewish
persecution by the Arabs and Muslims and includes only the persecution of the
Jews in Europe, leaving the hands of the Arabs and Muslims cleaner than
Pontius Pilate's after the judgment of Christ. In fact he concludes his closing
arguments by stating: "the Arabs were being made to suffer for the crimes
of Europe. Is one view right and the other wrong?" (Chapter 5, page 223).
This type of representation
would be half of the truth, in fact it is even a mock trial where the evidence
for a murder case is ignored allowing the defendant to go scot-free, also the
study that was presented was concerning the Arabs and Jews and the question
over the land. But since he brought up right or wrong, we must present the
missing facts.
While what we will present
here is a tiny glimpse of the full picture, all the centuries of persecution
culminated with the Arabs forcing the Jews to leave between 1918 and 1948 and
after centuries of persecution by the Arabs towards the Jews. In fact one can
fill pages on the persecution of Arabs towards the Jews way before 1948.
The supposed golden age for
Jews living under Islamic and Arab rule is in reality plagued with death,
torture, expulsion, rape, slavery, annihilation, and extradition of mass
proportions.
To say that it was only the
immigration of Jews to Palestine was the cause of these persecutions is an
excuse. Much of the persecution that went on in Arab nations had much of it's
influence from Islam and Nazi Germany as we shall see:
Here are the facts:
▲
THE DARK ERA ON JEWISH LIFE UNDER THIMMITUDE
Common Arab opinion
"Arabs as Semites cannot possibly be anti-Semitic."
This, however, is a
semantic distortion that ignores the reality of Arab discrimination and
hostility toward Jews. Arabs, like any other people, can indeed be
anti-Semitic.
The term
"anti-Semite" was coined in Germany in 1879 by Wilhelm Marrih to
refer to the anti-Jewish manifestations of the period and to give Jew hatred a
more scientific sounding name (Bernard Lewis, Semites & Anti-Semites, (NY:
WW Norton & Co., 1986), p. 81.)
Jews were no strangers to
persecution and humiliation among the Arabs and Muslim nations, Princeton
University historian Bernard Lewis wrote: "The Golden Age of equal rights
was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish
sympathy for Islam." (Bernard Lewis, "The Pro-Islamic Jews," p.
401.)
Throughout the centuries,
the Jew suffered under the "Omar Charter" which declared:
"The necks of
thimmis(Jew and Christians) are to be sealed when collecting the Jezzieh(tax
imposed on Jews and Christians). The method of sealing is to bind the necks of
the person with a collar, in it is a piece of led, stamped on it the amount of
his payment, the collar is not to be broken until the payment is completed.
This is in accordance to the Quranic verse 'Until they pay the Jezzieh by an
upper hand, may they be subjugated(humiliated)'...And if the person was a Jew,
he must wear on his shoulder a red or yellow banner, so he is recognized as a
Jew. And if the person is a Christian, he needs to wear harsh clothes, with a
large pocket in the chest area like women. As for Christian women, they must
wear shoes with different colors, one black and the other white. And if a Jew
or a Christian goes into a public bath, he must wear an iron, copper, or lead
made collar around his neck so he can be identified from Muslims. Never a Jew
or a Christian can build houses higher than a Muslim. They are not to crowed
public roads but need to use narrow alley ways, and small streets. They are not
to be saluted, nor their graves can be extended beyond the surface of the
ground". (Omar bin Al-Khattab, Islam's second Caliph after Muhammad the
prophet of Islam, reference Faqeeh Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136, The Omar
covenant).
Much of the Islamic success
and its prosperity is to be credited to the Eastern Jews. It was the oppressed
Persian Jews who helped the Muslims to subdue and conquer the Persians. The
relationship between the Jews and the Muslims was constantly changing. At the
time of Al-Mutawakil, in the beginning of the eighth century, was very hard
upon the Jews and Christians alike. He was a persecutor of the Jews and
Christians. The Muslim Caliph Al-Mamun (813-832), He and the rest of the Muslim
rulers knew how much from all that they desired could be learned from the Jews
in their midst. Jewish physicians, teachers, and merchants became quite the
fashion. Fleets of trading vessels commanded by Jewish captains were sailing in
the Mediterranean. In the beginning of the Ninth century the Jews called the
Gaonim contributed many scholars and schools, the Bible was translated for the
first time into Arabic by a Jew, Saadia ben Joseph (892-942).
Rabbi Menachim ben Saruk,
compiled and completed the first Bible dictionary. The Gaonim schools
flourished until 997 A.D. Hai was the last of the Gaonim when the Caliph got
jealous of the wealth of the Gaonim, he made up some false charges and
imprisoned Hai and his father, and confiscated their wealth. Hai escaped, and
a little later, the last attempt was made to reconstruct the Gaonim schools
failed by a Hezekiah. The last Gaonim was executed (1036) by the order of the
Caliph. All Jewish schools were closed, and the scholars were scattered.
Palestine and the whole of the Byzantine Empire became almost deserted by Jews.
As distinguished
Orientalist G.E. von Grunebaum has written:
"It would not be
difficult to put together the names of a very sizeable number of Jewish
subjects or citizens of the Islamic area who have attained to high rank, to
power, to great financial influence, to significant and recognized intellectual
attainment; and the same could be done for Christians. But it would again not
be difficult to compile a lengthy list of persecutions, arbitrary
confiscations, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms." (Bat Ye'or, p.61)
The attitude of the Muslims
toward the Christians and the Jews is that of a master towards slaves, whom he
treats with a certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place. Any
sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed. (Middle Eastern Studies,
(1971), p. 232.)
▲
THE NAZI – ISLAM CONNECTION
Common Arab opinion:
"the Islamic treatment
to non-Muslims in general has been good compared to how other religions have
treated infidels".
The opinion of The Grand
Muslim leader the Mufti Ikrima Sabri of Jerusalem:
"[the Holocaust] is
not my problem. Muslims didn't do anything on this issue. It's the doing of
Hitler who hated the Jews,".
"It's not my fault if
Hitler hated the Jews. Anyway, they hate them just about everywhere."
(Ikrima Sabri The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, hours before hosting the Pope).
The thriving relationship
between the Arab/Muslim world and Nazi Germany was well documented. Sabri's
very own predecessor before him, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin
el-Husseni, recruited Hitler's Bosnian-Muslim troops - a unit of the
"Hanjar (Saber) Division" of the Waffen SS.
And way before him, little
is known that in many Arab and Islamic countries Jews were forced to wear
distinctive clothing and even a "yellow badge" on their shoulders.
In the ninth century, for example, Baghdad's Caliph Al-Mutawakkil designated a
yellow badge for Jews, setting a precedent that would be followed centuries
later in Nazi Germany. The facts are that such systems were not an invention
that started in Germany's Nazi era. A comparison between Nazi law towards Jews
and Dhimmi Law in the Omar Charter will find much in common:
Nazism: Jews need to wear
an identifiable mark on their clothing to identify them as Jews. The star of
David for an identification with the word (Jude) on the chest. A yellow banner
is to be fixed around the shoulder or arm, as to be recognized as a Jew. They
must live in the Jewish Ghettos.
Islam: Dhimmis (Jews &
Christians) must wear identifiable clothing and live in a clearly marked house.
For Jews, a yellow banner is to be fixed around the shoulder or arm, as to be
recognized as a Jew. (Omar Charter, Faqeeh Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136).
Nazism: Jews are not
admitted to serve in the army or navy. They are not allowed to bear arms.
Islam: He must not ride a
horse or bear arms. He must yield the right-of-way to Muslims. (Omar Charter,
Faqeeh Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136).
Nazism: Jews cannot hold
public offices, whether national state, or municipal. salaried or honorary, are
closed to Jews. Jews cannot be Judges in criminal and disciplinary cases. Jews
cannot serve on juries. (The War Against The Jews, Anti-Jewish Legislation,
Lucy Dawidowicz, p72).
Islam: Dhimmis (Jews &
Christians) cannot be a witness in a legal court except in matters relating to
other "dhimmis" (Jews & Christians) or be a judge in a Muslim
court. (Omar Charter, Faqeeh Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136).
Nazism: A compensation for
the protection that Jews enjoy as aliens, they must pay double the taxes the
Germans pay. (The War Against The Jews, Anti-Jewish Legislation, Lucy
Dawidowicz, p75).
Islam: A compensation for
the protection that dhimmis (Jews & Christians) enjoy, they must pay
"Jezzieh", a special tax to be imposed on dhimmis (Jews &
Christians) only. (Omar Charter, Faqeeh Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136).
Nazism: The marriage with
Jews is prohibited. Adoption of Jews and by Jews is prohibited. (The War
Against The Jews, Anti-Jewish Legislation, Lucy Dawidowicz, p84).
Islam: He cannot be the
guardian of a Muslim child, the owner of a Muslim slave.
(Omar Charter, Faqeeh
Al-Muluk, volume 2, pages 124-136).
It is argued that the Omar
Pact was not part of Quran or Sunna. However, it was Omar who derived his
covenant from the highest of Islamic sources:
1. Killing of converts
(after being warned for three days)
[Saheeh Bukhari 9:57]
2. Orders that non-Muslims
are to be fought until they believe in Islam or pay Al-Jizyah Tax [Quran
9:5,29 and Saheeh Bukhari 4:196]
3. In a Muslims society, if
a Muslim kills a non-Muslim, the Muslim isn't killed [Saheeh Bukhari 9:50]
while a Muslim who kills a Muslim and a non-Muslim who kills a Muslim is to be
killed [Quran 2:178 and Sunan Al-Tarmithi - 1401]
4. Mohammad practiced and
ordered ethnic cleansing by removing all Jews,
Christians and Pagans from
the Arabian Peninsula [Saheeh Bukhari 4:392 and 5:716]
5. Muslims are ordered to
push the non-Muslims to the narrowest part of the road when meeting them [Saheeh
Muslim 25:5389]
6. From the Pact of Omar we
read that Christians:-
a. Cannot build any new
houses of worship in their neighborhoods, and can't repair the ones that
fall into ruin
b. Cannot evangelize, and
yet they cannot forbid their kin from becoming Muslims
c. Cannot wear clothes that
could make them look like Muslims, and they must wear distinguishing
clothes.
d. Cannot engrave Arabic
inscription on their seals.
e. They cannot do anything
pertaining to their religion publicly (show their crosses, be heard
worshipping, etc...)
f. Cannot take slaves who have
been allotted to Muslims (vice-versa is possible)
g. Cannot build houses
overtopping the houses of the Muslims
Malik reports: "Yahya
related to me from Malik that he heard that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz gave a
decision that when a Jew or Christian was killed, his blood-money was half the
blood-money of a free muslim." (Malik Book 43, #43.15.8b)
In the Quran Surah 9:2 :
"...Fight against such
of those who have been given the Scriptures [Jews & Christians] as
believe not in Allah nor the last day, and forbid not that which Allah has
forbidden by his Messenger and follow not the religion of truth [Islam],
until they *pay tribute* (taxes paid by Jews & Christians who do not
want to renounce their religion), being brought low.." (Quran, Sura 9
verse 9).
"Abu Musa said, "I came to the
Prophet along with two men of Ash'ariyin, one on my right and the other on my
left, while Allah's Apostle was brushing his teeth, and both men asked him for
some employment. The Prophet said, 'O Abu Musa (O 'Abdullah bin Qais!).' I
said, 'By Him Who sent you with the Truth, these two men did not tell me what
was in their hearts and I did not feel (realize) that they were seeking
employment.' As if I were looking now at his Siwak(tooth brush) being drawn to
a corner under his lips, and he said, 'We never appoint for our affairs anyone
who seeks to be employed. But O Abu Musa, go to Yemen. The Prophet then sent
Mu'adh bin Jabal after him and when Mu'adh reached him, he spread out a cushion
for him and requested him to get down (and sit on the cushion). Behold: There
was a fettered man beside Abu Musa. Mu'adh asked, "Who is this
(man)?" Abu Musa said, "He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then
reverted back to Judaism." Then Abu Musa requested Mu'adh to sit down but
Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the
judgment of Allah and His Apostle [for such cases] and repeated it three times.
Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed. Abu Musa
added, "Then we discussed the night prayers and one of us said, 'I pray
and sleep, and I hope that Allah will reward me for my sleep as well as for my
prayers.'" (Volume 9, Book 84, Number 58: Narrated Abu Burda)
This hatred towards Jews
stems from the prophet of Islam himself:
"I have been ordered
to fight the people till they say: "None has the right to be worshipped
but Allah, " and if they say so, pray our prayers face our Qibla and
slaughter as we slaughter, their blood and property will be sacred to us."
(Narrated Anas Bin Malik, Hadith Sahih Bukhari Vol.1 # 387.)
Such hatred carried on from
time immemorial, being "Muhammad-like", the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj
Amin Al Husseni and the friend of Adolf Hitler stated, "I declare a holy
war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" (Leonard J.
Davis and M. Decter. Myths and facts 1982; a Concise Record of the Arab-Israeli
Conflict, Washington DC: near east report, 1982, p. 199).
The Mufti was always in
close contacts with the Nazi Party. He had communications with Himmler and was
an excellent friend of Adolf Hitler and coordinated with Hitler the "final
solution" to the Jews on November 21, 1941. It was pure hate fed from
religion to schools, and Arab media that caused severe persecution in the Arab
world, even the prominent Egyptian writer Anis Mansour, who is respected by
almost every Arab wrote: "People all over the world come to realize that
Hitler was right, since Jews are bloodsuckers...interested in destroying the
whole world which has ...expelled them and despised them for centuries ... and
burnt them in Hitler's crematoria ... one million ... six millions. Would that
he had finished it!" (Anis Mansour 1973).
The Führer's puppet , who
fled Palestine after agitating against the British during the Arab Revolt of
1936-39 found refuge in Iraq after instigating the Iraqi coup of 1941
orchestrated by Hitler. When Britain crushed the rebellion, the Mufti escaped
to Berlin. In Berlin he was enthusiastically received by the "Islamische
Zentralinstitut" and welcomed him as the "Führer of the Arabic
world." In an introductory speech, he called the Jews the "most
fierce enemies of the Muslims" and an "ever corruptive element"
in the world.
Husseni soon became an
honored guest of the Nazi leadership and met on several occasions with Hitler.
He personally lobbied the Führer against the plan to let Jews leave Hungary,
fearing they would immigrate to Palestine. He also strongly intervened when
Adolf Eichman tried to cut a deal with the British government to exchange
German POWs for 5000 Jewish children who also could have fled to Palestine. The
Mufti's protests with the SS were successful, as the children were sent to
death camps in Poland instead. One German officer noted in his journals that
the Mufti would liked to have seen the Jews "preferably all killed."
On a visit to Auschwitz, he reportedly admonished the guards running the gas
chambers to work more diligently. Throughout the war, he appeared regularly on
German radio broadcasts to the Middle East, preaching his pro-Nazi,
anti-Semitic message to the Arab masses back home.
To show gratitude towards
his hosts, in 1943 the Mufti traveled several times to Bosnia, where on orders
of the SS he recruited the notorious "Hanjar troopers," a special
Bosnian Waffen SS company which slaughtered 90% of Bosnia's Jews and burned
countless Serbian churches and villages. These Bosnian Muslim recruits rapidly
found favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who established a special Mullah
Military school in Dresden. The only condition the Mufti set for his help was
that after Hitler won the war, the entire Jewish population in Palestine should
be liquidated.
After the war, Husseni
fled to Switzerland and from there escaped via France to Cairo, were he was
warmly received. The Mufti used funds received earlier from the Hitler regime
to finance the Nazi-inspired Arab Liberation Army that terrorized Jews in
Palestine. The American Christian Palestine Committee wrote, "Of the
long list of hundreds of Arab agents on the German payroll, only a few are
mentioned. Of the numerous cases of sabotage, only a few are recorded. Of the
thousands of available documents, fewer then a dozen are published here."
(Arab War Effort, p.3).
"The Arab riots of
1936 in Palestine were carried out by the Mufti with funds supplied by the
Nazis" (Arab Higher Committee, submitted to the United Nations, May 1947).
Even the captured files of
the German High Command in Flensburg, Germany, indicated that: "Only
through funds available by Germany to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was it
possible to carry out the revolt in Palestine.". The Mufti demanded
Hitler, Ribbentrop, and the Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Rumanian governments keep
their promise of "the destruction of the so-called Jewish National Home:
"I asked you,
Reichsfuhrer, to take all measures to prevent the Jews from going".
Further proof of the Muft's collaboration, this same Muslim Mufti of
Jerusalem in a letter to the notorious Heinrich Himmler, October 3, 1994 to
"Reichsfuhrer and Reichsminister" offered the Arab Legion for use
against the Allies. In a letter from Rome, June 28, 1943, the Mufti sends a
letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Hungary asking him to send one
half of a million Jews to Poland, and as a sequel to this evil request a half
million Jews were killed in the death camps.
When war broke out in 1967,
Jewish homes and property were confiscated. Egypt's attitude toward Jews at
that time was reflected in its treatment of former Nazis. Hundreds were allowed
to take up residence in Egypt and given positions in the government. The head
of the Polish Gestapo, Leopold Gleim (who had been sentenced to death in
absentia), controlled the Egyptian secret police.
Syria's Nazi connection
sheltered Alois Brunner, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals. Brunner
was a chief aide to Adolf Eichmann who served as an adviser to the Assad
regime. (Newsday, November 1, 1987 by Rep. Michael McNulty.)
Today amongst the
Palestinians. Hitler is one of the heroes of Palestinian youth, reveal
researchers from the University of Hamburg, who are conducting an international
study on the perceptions of democracy among young people around the world.
Booksellers in the territories report that Hitler's book Mein Kampf is one of
the most popular there, a best-seller from their point of view. The book is
being distributed by Al-Shurouq, a Ramallah based book distributor, to East
Jerusalem and territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
According to Agence France
Presse (Sept. 8), the book, previously banned by Israel, has been allowed by
the PA and is 6th on the Palestinian best-seller list. Bisan publishers in
Lebanon first published this edition in 1963 and again in 1995. The book costs
about $10. The cover shows a picture of Hitler, a swastika, and the title in
both German and Arabic. The translator, Luis Al-Haj, wrote the following
introduction:
"Hitler the soldier
left behind not only a legend stained by tragedy itself; the tragedy of a state
whose dreams were shattered, a regime whose pillars were torn down, and a
political party that was crushed. Hitler was a man of ideology who bequeathed
an ideological heritage whose decay is inconceivable. This ideological heritage
includes politics, society, science, culture, and war as science and
culture."
"The National
Socialism that Hitler preached for and whose characteristics were presented in
his book My Struggle, and whose principles he explained in his speeches before
he took power, as well as during the 13 years he spent at the head of the
German nation - this National Socialism did not die with the death of its
herald. Rather, its seeds multiplied under each star."
"We cannot really
understand the efforts of this man without examining the principles enclosed in
his book My Struggle that the Nazis turned into the "Gospel of National
Socialism."
"This translation of
the book My Struggle has never been presented to Arab speakers. It is taken
from the original text of the author, Adolf Hitler. The text was untouched by
the censor. We made a point to deliver Hitler's opinions and theories on
nationalism, regimes, and ethnicity without any changes because they are not
yet outmoded and because we, in the Arab world, still proceed haphazardly in
all three fields."
Palestinian journalists are
in the habit of comparing Israel's actions
in the territories with those of the Nazis. Alongside the anti-Semitic
publications, Israeli leaders are portrayed as oppressors: Binyamin Netanyahu,
while serving as prime minister, was portrayed as a Nazi and described as
"a Zionist terrorist who is worse than
Hitler." Now Ehud Barak, in Arafat's eyes, is worse than Netanyahu.
Moreover, the Holocaust has become a tool for undermining in the hands of
Palestinian Holocaust deniers:
"It was a good day for
the Jews, when the Nazi Hitler began his campaign of persecution against
them," writes Sif Ali Algeruan of Al-Hayat Al-Jedida a Palestinian News
Paper.
"They began to
disseminate, in a terrifying manner, pictures of mass shootings in directed at
them, and to invent the shocking story about the gas ovens in which, according
to them, Hitler used to burn them. The newspapers are filled with pictures of
Jews who were mowed down by Hitler's machine guns, and of Jews being led to the
gas ovens. In these pictures they concentrated on women, babies and old people,
and they took advantage of it, in order to elicit sympathy towards them, when
they demand financial reparations, contributions and grants from all over the
world. The truth is that the persecution of the Jews is a myth, that the Jews
dubbed "the tragedy of the Holocaust" and took advantage of, in order
to elicit sympathy towards them.".
Even the crossword puzzles
that appear in the newspapers contain definitions such as "a Jewish center
for commemorating the Holocaust and the lie," as a definition for Yad
Vashem.
"Some of them go hand
in glove with the Holocaust deniers," says Esti Vebman, researcher of
anti-Semitism. "It is true that there have been of late intellectual
circles that are willing to agree that such a historical incident, like the
Holocaust, did indeed happen, but from the deniers' point of view there were no
gas chambers and no six million who died.
In summary it was the Arab
Nazi-like bursts of brutality, and mass extradition of the Jews from all the
Arab lands which forced the Jews to immigrate to Israel. In fact it was the
Nazi and Arab hate of the Jews that caused Israel to be created. Of more than
850,000 Jews in Arab lands fewer than 29,000 remained forced to leave to
Israel. (American Jewish Yearbook, 1983, New York).
The problem remains, Nazism
was still awaiting them, even in their homeland. The difference is the Jew is
in power while a hostile world surrounds him.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN ARABIA PRIOR TO
1948.
The rise of Islam,
with whose power the Arabian Jews came in contact
when it was yet in its infancy, marks the beginning of a new period in Jewish
history. Several centuries before Mohammed's birth (c. 570), the Jews had
effected important settlements in Arabia, and in the course of time, they had
acquired a considerable influence upon the heathen population. In fact in
Yemen, an Arab-Jewish kingdom existed . The Arabian Jews were numerous and
powerful, in the Hedjaz, north of Yemen. To win the Israelites to his cause,
the "prophet" made various concessions to their religion and adopted
some of their customs. As this was useless, and as the Jews were a constant
menace to his cause, he resolved to get rid of their tribes one after another.
He first put an end to the Jews in the vicinity of Medina, and next (628)
subjected those of the district of Khaibar and of Wadi al-Kura.
The Jewish community in
Arabia was totally destroyed or extradited from Saudi Arabia in barbaric
fashion by Muhammad the originator of Islam. Banu Qurayza were all killed and
the women and children became a loot, much of the other tribes like Banu
Qaynuqa, and Al-Natheer were either killed, sold to slavery, or extradited. The
Jew in Saudi Arabia were accused of treason, and in few days trenches were dug
in the market-place in Medina, and the men of Qurayza were brought out in
groups and their necks were struck. Estimates of those killed vary from 400 to
900:
"Abu 'Ubayda told me
on the authority of Abu 'Amr, the Medinan,
when the apostle got the better of the Banu (tribe of) Qurayza he seized about
four hundred men from the Jews who had been allies of Aus against Khazraj, and
ordered that they should be beheaded. Accordingly Khazraj began to cut off
their heads with great satisfaction. The apostle saw that the faces of Khazraj
showed their pleasure, but there was no such indication on the part of Aus, and
he suspected that that was because of the alliance that had existed between
them and the B. Qurayza. When there were only twelve of them left he gave them
over to Aus, assigning one Jew to every two of Aus, saying, 'Let so-and-so
strike him and so-and-so finish him off.' One of those who was so handed over
to them was Ka'b b. Yahudha, who was an important man among them. He gave him
to Muhayyisa and Abu Burda b. Niyar (it was Abu Burda to whom the apostle had
given permission to sacrifice a young goat on the feast of Adha). He said, 'Let
Muhayyisa strike him and Abu Burda finish him off.' So Muhayyisa fetched him a
blow, which did not cut in properly, and Abu Burda dispatched him and gave him
the finishing stroke. Huwayyisa, who was still an unbeliever, said to his
brother, Muhayyisa, 'Did you kill Ka'b b. Yahudha?', and when he said he did,
he said, 'By God, much of the flesh on your belly comes from his wealth; you
are a miserable fellow, Muhayyisa.' He replied, 'If the one who ordered me to
kill him had ordered me to kill you, I would have done so.' He was amazed at
this remark and went away astounded. They say that he used to wake up in the
night astonished at his brother's words, until in the morning he said, 'By God,
this is indeed a religion.' Then he came to the prophet and accepted Islam.
Muhayyisa then spoke the lines which we have written above." (Ibn Ishaq,
page 752).
In the writings of Al-Kindy
during the second century, a sample of Muhammad's killings to Jews he writes:
"Abu Afek, also a Jew.
This last was an aged man, decrepit and helpless, whom Ibn Omeir perfidiously
stabbed to death while asleep at night upon his bed, because he had spoken
despitefully of thy Master. Tell me, now, I pray thee, whether thou hast
anywhere heard or read of so unjustifiable an act. Hath any revelation ever
sanctioned it; and what kind of ordinance is this, to slay a man simply for
speaking of blame? Had this aged man done anything worthy at all of death, much
less of being assassinated unawares? If he spake the truth, should he have been
slain for the same? And if he lied, still even for that, one is not to be put
to death, but rather chastised that he may in time to come refrain therefrom.
My friend, thou well knowest (the Lord be gracious unto thee!) how that it is
unlawful to disturb a bird resting in its little nest by night; how much more
to slay a man, sleeping securely in his bed, and that for only speaking words
of blame! Is this aught but murder? I find not that such an act is justified
either by the law of God, of reason, or of nature. Nay, by my life! it is but
the old work of Satan towards Adam and his race ever since he wrought his fall.
And how consisteth all this with the saying of thine (the Lord guide thee
aright, my friend!) that thy Master 'was sent a Blessing and a Mercy to all
mankind." (Al-Kindy, page 47).
The killing of the men went
on day and night, one by one was be-headed and thrown into a ditch. The women
were split among the Muslims, Muhammad the prophet of Islam had (Zaynab), the
wife of the tribe's leader, after he killed her husband and her brother, he
took his "God given" trophy on the same night.
Like the false Christians
in Europe under the banner of Christianity, Muhammad destroyed the Jews under
the banner of God. Muslims simply write off these atrocities with the same
excuses used by everyone who hated the Jews, He used mock trials and accused
them of treason. The excuses presented by the Hadith is the typical one, a Jew
was chosen "Sa'd b. Mu'adh" to pass judgment, and the death penalty
was given, so the Jew was blamed.
Then and as it is now,
Holocaust deniers and Muslim apologists blame the Jews for
"inventing" the story: "His contemporary, the early traditionist
and jurist Malik, called him [Ibn Ishaq] unequivocally "a liar" and
"an impostor...who transmits his stories from the Jews". (From Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,(1976) Uyun al-athar,
I, 16-7.)
So the typical mock trial
continues.
▲
LET’S NOT FORGET THE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST
A pause must be taken to
remember the year 1915 A.D, works of Talaiat Basha, the Minister of Interior in
the Ottoman Government. An order came from him to the Governor of the city of
Halab Nuri Bek: "Despite a previous decision concerning the elimination of
the Armenia Race, as the necessities of time did not allow the fulfillment of
this holy intent, and now, after we eliminated all obstacles, and seeing that
the time has come to redeem our nation from the dangerous race. We have
in-trusted you, and we insist, that you do not surrender yourselves to the
feelings of pity, as you face their miserable situation. For the cause of
putting an end to their existence, you need to work with all your strength, to
completely destroy the Armenian name in Turkey, once and for all.". (refer
to the Armenian Atrocities, Na'aeem Bek, page 43).
And following this order,
one million and a half Armenian were butchered. It was done to destroy
Christianity in an Islamic Ottomon Empire.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN PALESTINE PRIOR TO
1948
Arab terrorism in the Holy
Land originated centuries before the recent "tool" of the Palestinian
cause was invented. In towns where Jews lived for hundreds of years were
periodically robbed, raped, and massacred. The survivors were obliged to
abandon their possessions and run. At the beginning of this century
Jews were recorded in nearly every town that is today considered to have been
"purely Arab". It was Jewish refugees who were forced to flee from
their homes within Palestine to other areas in Palestine. David Landes in
"Palestine Before the Zionists", writes: "Jews had to pass
Muslims on their left side, because that was the side of Satan. They had to
yield the right of way, step off the pavement to let the Arab go by, above all
make sure not to touch him in passing, because this could provoke a violent
response. In the same way, anything that reminded the Muslims of the presence
of alternative religions, any demonstration of alternative forms of worship,
had to be avoided, so synagogues were places in humble, hidden places, and the
sounds of Jewish prayers carefully muted". DeHass also writes: "Murad
III decreed that all Jews throughout his empire be executed", this decree
was prevented by Solomon Ashkenazi, Murad's confidential agent. In 1576 Sultan
Murad III enacted legislation to uproot and deport a 1000 of the 15,000 of
Safed's Jews to Cyprus.
In the 16th century in
Jerusalem the Jews were so taxed to the point of extortion and most of
Jerusalem's Jews ran to Hebron, Gaza, and Tiberius to become refugees. Bedouin
raiders, general anarchy, tax corruption, with additional tax burden was aimed
only at the Jews, yet they held steadfast in Judah-cum-Palestine. The Jerusalem
Jews were bitterly and mercilessly persecuted during the 17th century reign of
an Arab ruler Ibn Barouk who bought the rule from Murad IV. In 1660 the entire
Jewish community was massacred by Arabs with only one survivor.
Little is known by Arabs as
to why Ahmad Basha El-Jazzar[The butcher] held this name, his sadistic wanton
exploits became legend during the 1800s, who was known to travel accompanied by
an executioner. When The Butcher encountered a subject who was adjudged to be
misbehaving, "The criminal bowed his neck, the executioner struck, and the
head fell" (DeHass). Hayim Farhi, the only Jew who has risen to power in
the area was imprisoned by The Butcher, cutting off his nose, ear, and gouging
out his eye. The Jews were at the bottom of the heap of peoples in status who
had to pay to pray on the Wailing Wall, protection money was always collected
against destruction and vandalism of the Jewish burial grounds, and to prevent
molestation of Jewish travelers.
In the 1830s havoc was
created during the Egyptian reign of Palestine, and the Jews were persecuted
brutally throughout the country. In 1834 the inhabitants of Eastern Palestine
crossed the Jordan River to join natives of Nablus, Hebron, and Bethlehem,
40,000 of them rushed on Jerusalem and looted the city for 5 days were the Jews
had their homes sacked and their women raped. (DeHass, History, vol V, p.393).
The Jewish story in
Palestine was like the story of a rape victim, blamed for being there at the
time. In the following few decades (1848 - 1878) scores of incidents involving
anti-Jewish violence, persecution, and extortions filled page after page of
documented reports from the British Consulate in Jerusalem too overwhelming to
show in these pages.
Throughout the 19th century
Jews were victims of mass hunger and of Arab attacks. The 1929 Arab riots
resulted in the rape and massacre of most of Hebron's Jewish community.
Later Muftism by Haj
Al-Ameen El-Husseni started fatwas (religious decrees) against all the Jews as a
response to the Zionist movement. His collaboration with Hitler on the Eve of
The Final Solution left an everlasting mark on the history of Muftism in The
Holy Land. Letters of collaboration with Heinrich Himmler and the Hungarian
Prime Minister resulted in the death of 400,000 Jews when he succeeded to stop
them from immigrating to the Holy Land. Till now, no apology, hearing, or
condemnation was made by any Arab government or religious official.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN MOROCCO PRIOR TO
1948
The Jewish community of
present-day Morocco dates back more than 2,000 years. There were Jewish
colonies in the country before it became a Roman province. in 1032 AD, 6000
Jews were murdered. Indeed the greatest persecution by the Arabs towards the
Jews was in Fez, Morocco, nothing was worse than the slaughter of 120,000 Jews
in 1146 and before that In 1160 Maimonides in his Epistle concerning apostasy
writes his fellow Jews: "Now we are asked to render the active homage to
heathenism but only to recite an empty formula which the Moslems themselves
knew we utter insincerely in order to circumvent the bigot ... indeed, any Jew
who, after uttering the Muslim formula, wishes to observe the whole 613
precepts in the privacy of his home, may do so without hindrance. Nevertheless,
if, even under circumstances, a Jew surrenders his life for the sanctification
of the name of God before men, he has done nobly and his reward is great before
the Lord. But if a man asked me, "shall I be slain or utter the formula of
Islam?" I answer, "utter the formula and live ... "". In
1391 a wave of Jewish refugees expelled from Spain brought new life to the
community, as did new arrivals from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497. From
1438, the Jews of Fez were forced to live in special quarters called mellahs, a
name derived from the Arabic word for salt because the Jews in Morocco were
forced to carry out the job of salting the heads of executed prisoners prior to
their public display.
Chouraqui sums it up when
he wrote: "such restriction and humiliation as to exceed anything in
Europe". Charles de Foucauld in 1883 who was not generally sympathetic to
Jews writes of the Jews: "They are the most unfortunate of men, every Jew
belongs body and soul to his seigneur, the sid[Arab master]".
Similarly, in 1465, Arab
mobs in Fez slaughtered thousands of Jews, leaving only 11 alive, after a
Jewish deputy vizier treated a Muslim woman in "an offensive manner."
The killings touched off a wave of similar massacres throughout Morocco.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN MOROCCO AFTER 1948
In June 1948, bloody riots
in Oujda and Djerada killed 44 Jews and wounded scores more. That same year, an
unofficial economic boycott was instigated against Moroccan Jews.
In 1956, Morocco declared
its independence, and Jewish emigration to Israel was suspended. In 1963,
emigration resumed, allowing more than 100,000 Moroccan Jews to reach Israel.
In 1965, Moroccan writer
Said Ghallab described the attitude of his fellow Muslims toward their Jewish
neighbors:
The worst insult that a
Moroccan could possibly offer was to treat someone as a Jew....My childhood
friends have remained anti-Jewish. They hide their virulent anti-Semitism by
contending that the State of Israel was the creature of Western
imperialism....A whole Hitlerite myth is being cultivated among the populace.
The massacres of the Jews by Hitler are exalted ecstatically. It is even
credited that Hitler is not dead, but alive and well, and his arrival is
awaited to deliver the Arabs from Israel. (Said Ghallab, "Les Juifs sont
en enfer," in Les Temps Modernes, (April 1965), pp. 2247-2251. ).
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN YEMEN PRIOR TO 1948
In Yemen from the seventh
century on the Jewish populations suffered the severest possible interpretation
of the Charter of Omar. For about 4 centuries, the Jews suffered under the fierce
fanatical edict of the most intolerant Islamic sects. The Yemen Epistle by
Rambam in which he commiserated with Yemen's Jewry and besought them to keep
the faith, and in 1724 fanatical rulers ordered synagogues
destroyed, and Jewish public prayers were forbidden. The Jews were exiled, many
died from starvation and the survivors were ordered to settle in Mausa, but
later, this order was annulled by a decree in 1781 due to the need of their
skilled craftsmen.
Jacob Sappir a Jerusalem
writer describes Yemeni Jews in Yemen in 1886:
"The Arab natives have
always considered the Jew unclean, but his blood for them was not considered
unclean. They lay claims to all his belongings, and if he is unwilling, they
employ force...The Jews live outside the town in dark dwellings like prison
cells or caves out of fear...for the least offense, he is sentenced to
outrageous fines, which he is quite unable to pay. In case of non-payment, he
is put in chains and cruelly beaten every day. Before the punishment is inflicted,
the Cadi[judge] addresses him in gentle tones and urges him to change his faith
and obtain a share of all the glory of this world and of the world beyond. His
refusal is again regarded as penal obstinacy. On the other hand, it is not open
to the Jew to prosecute a Muslim, as the Muslim by right of law can dispose of
the life and the property of the Jew, and it is only to be regarded as an act
of magnanimity if the Jews are allowed to live. The Jew is not admissible as a
witness, nor has his oath any validity.".
Danish-German explorer
Garsten Neibuhr visited Yemen in 1762 described Jewish life in Yemen: "By
day they work in their shops in San'a, but by night they must withdraw to their
isolated dwellings, shortly before my arrival, 12 of the 14 synagogues of the
Jews were torn down, and all their beautiful houses wrecked".
The Jews did not improve
until the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1912, when they were
given equality and religious autonomy. However, during World War II, when
France was ruled by the anti-Semitic Vichy government, King Muhammed V
prevented the deportation of Jews from Morocco.
In 1922, the government of
Yemen reintroduced an ancient Islamic law that decreed that Jewish orphans
under age 12 were to be forcibly converted to Islam.
In 1947, after the
partition vote, Muslim rioters, joined by the local police force, engaged in a
bloody pogrom in Aden that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish
homes. Aden's Jewish community was economically paralyzed, as most of the Jewish
stores and businesses were destroyed. Early in 1948, looting occurred after six
Jews were falsely accused of the ritual murder of two Arab girls. (Howard
Sachar, A History of Israel).
By 1948 there were some
270,000 Jews in Morocco. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and grinding poverty,
many Jews elected to leave for Israel, France, the United States, and Canada.
Finally, nearly 50,000
traditionally religious Yemeni Jews, who had never seen a plane, were airlifted
to Israel in 1949 and in 1950 in Operation "Magic Carpet.". Since the
Book of Isaiah promised, "They shall mount up with wings, as eagles".
The Jewish community bordered "The Eagles" contentedly; to the pilots
consternation some of them lit a bon fire aboard, to cook there food.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN TUNISIA PRIOR TO
1948
The first documented
evidence of Jews in this area dates back to 200 A.D and demonstrates the
existence of a community in Latin Carthage under Roman rule. Latin Carthage
contained a significant Jewish presence, and several sages mentioned in the
Talmud lived in this area from the 2nd to the 4th centuries.
During the Byzantine
period, the condition of the community took a turn for the worse. An edict
issued by Justinian in 535 excluded Jews from public office, prohibited Jewish
practice, and resulted in the transformation of synagogues into churches. Many
fled to the Berber communities in the mountains and in the desert.
After the Arab conquest of
Tunisia in the 7th century, Jews lived under satisfactory conditions, despite
discriminatory measures such as a poll tax.
From 7th century Arab
conquest down through the Almahdiyeen atrocities, Tunisia fared little better
than its neighbors. The complete expulsion of Jews from Kairouan near Tunis
occurred after years of hardship, in the 13 century when Kairouan was anointed
as a holy city of Islam.
In the 16th century, the
"hated and despised" Jews of Tunis were periodically attacked by
violence and they were subjected to "vehement anti-Jewish policy"
during the various political struggles of the period. In 1869 Muslims butchered
many Jews in the defenseless ghetto.
Conditions worsened during
the Spanish invasions of 1535-1574, resulting in the flight of Jews from the
coastal areas. The situation of the community improved once more under Ottoman
rule.
During this period, the
community also split due to strong cultural differences between the Touransa
(native Tunisians) and the Grana (those adhering to Spanish or Italian
customs).
Improvements in the
condition of the community occurred during the reign of Ahmed Bey, which began
in 1837. He and his successors implemented liberal legislation, and a large
number of Jews rose to positions of political power during this reign.
Under French rule, Jews
were gradually emancipated. However, beginning in November 1940, when the
country was ruled by the Vichy authorities, Jews were subject to anti-Semitic
laws. From November 1942 until May 1943, the country was occupied by German
forces. During that time, the condition of the Jews deteriorated further, and
many were deported to labor camps and had their property seized.
Jews suffered once more in
1956, when the country achieved independence. The rabbinical tribunal was
abolished in 1957, and a year later, Jewish community councils were dissolved.
In addition, the Jewish quarter of Tunis was destroyed by the government.
Anti-Jewish rioting followed the outbreak of the Six-Day War; Muslims burned
down the Great Synagogue of Tunis. While the community was compensated for the
damage, these events increased the steady stream of emigration.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN LIBYA PRIOR TO 1948
The Jewish community of
Libya traces its origin back to the 3rd century B.C Under Roman rule, Jews
prospered.
In 73 A.D, a zealot from
Israel, Jonathan the Weaver, incited the poor of the community in Cyrene to
revolt. The Romans reacted with swift vengeance, murdering him and his
followers and executing other wealthy Jews in the community. This revolt
foreshadowed that of 115 A.D, which broke out not only in Cyrene, but in Egypt
and Cyprus as well.
In 1785, where Ali Burzi
Pasha murdered hundreds of Jews.
With the Italian occupation
of Libya in 1911, the situation remained good and the Jews made great strides
in education. At that time, there were about 21,000 Jews in the country, the
majority in Tripoli. In the late 1930s, Fascist anti-Jewish laws were gradually
enforced, and Jews were subject to terrible repression. Still, by 1941, the
Jews accounted for a quarter of the population of Tripoli and maintained 44
synagogues. In 1942 the Germans occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi,
plundered shops, and deported more than 2,000 Jews across the desert, where
more than one-fifth of them perished. Many Jews from Tripoli were also sent to
forced labor camps.
Conditions did not greatly
improve following the liberation. During the British occupation, there was a
series of pogroms, the worst of which, in 1945, resulted in the deaths of more
than 100 Jews in Tripoli and other towns and the destruction of five
synagogues.
The establishment of the State
of Israel, led many Jews to leave the country.
A savage pogrom in Tripoli
on November 5, 1945 were more than 140 Jews were massacred and almost every
synagogue looted. (Howard Sachar, A History of Israel).
In June 1948, rioters
murdered another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes. Thousands of Jews fled
the country after Libya was granted independence and membership in the Arab
League in 1951. (Norman Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times).
After the Six-Day War, the Jewish population of 7,000 was
again subjected to pogroms in which 18 were killed, and many more injured,
sparking a near-total exodus that left fewer than 100 Jews in Libya. When Col.
Qaddafi came to power in 1969, all Jewish property was confiscated and all
debts to Jews cancelled. Today, no Jews are believed to live in Libya.
Although emigration was
illegal, more than 3,000 Jews succeeded to leave to Israel. When the British
legalized emigration in 1949, more than 30,000 Jews fled Libya. At the time of
Colonel Qaddafi's coup in 1969, some 500 Jews remained in Libya. Qaddafi
subsequently confiscated all Jewish property and cancelled all debts owed to
Jews. By 1974 there were no more than 20 Jews, and it is believed that the
Jewish presence has passed out of existence.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN ALGERIA PRIOR TO
1948
Jewish settlement in
present-day Algeria can be traced back to the first centuries of the Common
Era. In the 14th century, with the deterioration of conditions in Spain, many
Spanish Jews moved to Algeria. Among them were a number of outstanding
scholars, including the Ribash and the Rashbatz. After the French occupation of
the country in 1830, Jews gradually adopted French culture and were granted
French citizenship.
On the eve of the civil war
that gripped the country in the late 1950s, there were some 130,000 Jews in
Algeria, approximately 30,000 of whom lived in the capital. Nearly all Algerian
Jews fled the country shortly after it gained independence from France in 1962.
Most of the remaining Jews live in Algiers, but there are individual Jews in
Oran and Blida. A single synagogue functions in Algiers, although there is no
resident rabbi. All other synagogues have been taken over for use as mosques.
In 1934, a Nazi-incited
pogrom in Constantine left 25 Jews dead and scores injured. After being granted
independence in 1962, the Algerian government harassed the Jewish community and
deprived Jews of their principle economic rights. As a result, almost 130,000
Algerian Jews immigrated to France. Since 1948, 25,681 Algerian Jews have
emigrated to Israel.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN SYRIA BEFORE 1948
The last Jews who wanted to
leave Syria departed with the chief rabbi in October 1994. Prior to 1947, there
were some 30,000 Jews made up of three distinct communities, each with its own
traditions: the Kurdish-speaking Jews of Kamishli, the Jews of Aleppo with
roots in Spain, and the original eastern Jews of Damascus, called Must'arab.
Today only a tiny remnant of these communities remains.
The Jewish presence in
Syria dates back to biblical times and is intertwined with the history of Jews
in neighboring Eretz Israel. With the advent of Christianity, restrictions were
imposed on the community. The Arab conquest in 636 A.D, however, greatly
improved the lot of the Jews. Unrest in neighboring Iraq in the 10th century
resulted in Jewish migration to Syria and brought about a boom in commerce,
banking, and crafts. During the reign of the Fatimids, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim
El-Kazzaz ran the Syrian administration, and he granted Jews positions in the
government.
Syrian Jewry supported the
aspirations of the Arab nationalists and Zionism, and Syrian Jews believed that
the two parties could be reconciled and that the conflict in Palestine could be
resolved. However, following Syrian independence from France in 1946, attacks
against Jews and their property increased, culminating in the pogroms of 1947,
which left all shops and synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. Thousands of Jews fled
the country, and their homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims.
For the next decades,
Syrian Jews were, in effect, hostages of a hostile regime. They could leave
Syria only on the condition that they leave members of their family behind.
Thus the community lived under siege, constantly under fearful surveillance of
the secret police. This much was allowed due to an international effort to
secure the human rights of the Jews, the changing world order, and the Syrian
need for Western support; so the conditions of the Jews improved somewhat.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN EGYPT PRIOR TO 1948
Jews have lived in Egypt
since Biblical times, and the conditions of the community have constantly
fluctuated with the political situation of the land. Israelite tribes first
moved to the Land of Goshen (the northeastern edge of the Nile Delta) during
the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1375-1358 B.C).
During the reign of Ramses
II (1298-1232 B.C), they were enslaved for the Pharaoh's building projects. His
successor, Merneptah, continued the same anti-Jewish policies, and around the
year 1220 B.C, the Jews revolted and escaped across the Sinai to Canaan. This
is the biblical Exodus commemorated in the holiday of Passover. Over the years,
many Jews in Eretz Israel who were not deported to Babylon sought shelter in
Egypt, among them the prophet Jeremiah. By 1897 there were more than 25,000
Jews in Egypt, concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria. In 1937 the population
reached a peak of 63,500.
Friedman wrote in "The
Myth of Arab Tolerance", "One Caliph, Al-Hakem of the Fatimids
devised particularly insidious humiliations for the Jews in his attempt to
perform what he deemed his roll as "Redeemer of mankind", first the
Jews were forced to wear miniature golden calf images around their necks, as
though they still worshipped the golden calf, but the Jews refused to convert.
Next they wore bells, and after that six pound wooden blocks were hung around
their necks. In fury at his failure, the Caliph had the Cairo Jewish quarter
destroyed, along with it's Jewish residence, in".
In 1945, with the rise of
Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of anti-Western and anti-Jewish
sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10 Jews were killed, 350 injured,
and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an old-age home were burned down. The
establishment of the State of Israel led to still further anti-Jewish feeling:
Between June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more
than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200. 2,000 Jews were arrested and many had
their property confiscated. Rioting over the next few months resulted in many
more Jewish deaths. Between June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish
Quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200.
Jews In 1956, the Egyptian
government used the Sinai Campaign as a pretext for expelling almost 25,000
Egyptian Jews and confiscating their property. Approximately 1,000 more Jews
were sent to prisons and detention camps. On November 23, 1956, a proclamation
signed by the Minister of Religious Affairs, and read aloud in mosques
throughout Egypt, declared that "all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the
state," and promised that they would be soon expelled.
Thousands of Jews were
ordered to leave the country. They were allowed to take only one suitcase and a
small sum of cash, and forced to sign declarations "donating" their
property to the Egyptian government. Foreign observers reported that members of
Jewish families were taken hostage, apparently to insure that those forced to
leave did not speak out against the Egyptian government. AP, (November 26 and
29th 1956); New York World Telegram).
In 1979, the Egyptian
Jewish community became the first in the Arab world to establish official
contact with Israel. Israel now has an embassy in Cairo and a consulate general
in Alexandria. At present, the few remaining Jews are free to practice Judaism
without any restrictions or harassment. Shaar Hashamayim is the only
functioning synagogue in Cairo. Of the many synagogues in Alexandria only the
Eliahu Hanabi is open for worship.
By 1957 it had fallen to
15,000. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, there was a renewed wave of
persecution, and the community dropped to 2,500. By the 1970s, after the
remaining Jews were given permission to leave the country, the community
dwindled to a few families. Jewish rights were finally restored in 1979 after
President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords with Israel. Only then was
the community allowed to establish ties with Israel and with world Jewry. The
majority of Jews reside in Cairo, but there are still a handful in Alexandria.
In addition there are about 15 Karaites in the community. Nearly all the Jews
are elderly, and the community is on the verge of extinction.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAN/PERSIA BEFORE
1948
The Jewish community of
Persia, modern-day Iran, is one of the oldest in the Diaspora, and its
historical roots reach back to the 6th century B.C, the time of the First
Temple. Their history in the pre-Islamic period is intertwined with that of the
Jews of neighboring Babylon.
Cyrus, the first Achaemid
emperor, conquered Babylon in 539 B.C, and permitted by special decree the
return of the Jewish exiles to the Land of Israel; this brought the First Exile
to an end. The Jewish colonies were scattered from centers in Babylon to
Persian provinces and cities such as Hamadan and Susa.
The books of Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel give a
favorable description of the relationship of the Jews to the court of the
Achaemids at Susa.
Under the Sassanid dynasty
(226-642 A.D), the Jewish population in Persia grew considerably and spread
throughout the region, yet Jews nevertheless suffered intermittent oppression
and persecution. The invasion by Arab Muslims in 642 A.D terminated the
independence of Persia, installed Islam as the state religion, and made a deep
impact on the Jews by changing their sociopolitical status.
Throughout the 19th
century, Jews were persecuted and discriminated against. Sometimes whole
communities were forced to convert. During the 19th century, there was
considerable emigration to the Land of Israel, and the Zionist movement spread
throughout the community.
In 1925, Under the Phalevi
Dynasty, the country was secularized and oriented towards the West. This
greatly benefited the Jews who were emancipated and played an important role in
the economy and in cultural life. On the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979,
there were 80,000 Jews in Iran, concentrated in Teheran (60,000), Shiraz
(8,000), Kermanshah (4,000), Isfahan (3,000), and in the cities of Kuzistahn.
In the wake of the upheaval, tens of thousands of Jews, especially the wealthy,
left the country, leaving behind vast amounts of property.
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NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ PRIOR TO 1948
The Iraqi Jews took pride
in their distinguished Jewish community, with it's history of scholarship and
dignity. Jews had prospered in what was then Babylonia for 1200 years before the
Muslim conquest in AD 634; it was not until the 9th century that Dhimmi laws
such as the yellow patch, heavy head tax, and residence restriction enforced.
Capricious and extreme oppression under some Arab caliphs and Momlukes brought
taxation amounting to expropriation in AD 1000, and 1333 the persecution
culminated in pillage and destruction of the Bagdad Sanctuary. in 1776, there
was a slaughter of Jews at Bosra, and in bitterness of anti Jewish measures
taken by Turkish Muslim rulers in the 18th century caused many Jews to flea.
The Iraqi Jewish community
is one of the oldest in the world and has a great history of learning and
scholarship. Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was
born in Ur of the Chaldees, in southern Iraq, around 2,000 A.D. The community
traces its history back to 6th century A.D, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judea
and sent most of the population into exile in Babylonia.
The community also
maintained strong ties with the Land of Israel and, with the aid of rabbis from
Israel, succeeded in establishing many prominent rabbinical academies. By the
3rd century, Babylonia became the center of Jewish scholarship, as is attested
to by the community's most influential creation, the Babylonian Talmud.
Under Muslim rule,
beginning in the 7th century, the situation of the community fluctuated. Many
Jews held high positions in government or prospered in commerce and trade. At
the same time, Jews were subjected to special taxes, restrictions on their
professional activity, and anti-Jewish incitement among the masses.
Under British rule, which
began in 1917, Jews fared well economically, and many were elected to
government posts. This traditionally observant community was also allowed to
found Zionist organizations and to pursue Hebrew studies. All of this progress
ended when Iraq gained independence in 1932.
In June 1941, the
Mufti-inspired, pro-Nazi coup of Rashid Ali sparked rioting and a pogrom in
Baghdad. Armed Iraqi mobs, with the complicity of the police and the army,
murdered 180 Jews and wounded almost 1,000.
Although emigration was
prohibited, many Jews made their way to Israel during this period with the aid
of an underground movement. In 1950 the Iraqi parliament finally legalized
emigration to Israel, and between May 1950 and August 1951, the Jewish Agency
and the Israeli government succeeded in airlifting approximately 110,000 Jews
to Israel in Operations Ezra and Nehemiah. This figure includes 18,000 Kurdish
Jews, who have many distinct traditions. Thus a community that had reached a
peak of 150,000 in 1947 dwindled to a mere 6,000 after 1951.
Additional outbreaks of
anti-Jewish rioting occurred between 1946-49. After the establishment of Israel
in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime.
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NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ AFTER 1948
In 1950, Iraqi Jews were
permitted to leave the country within a year provided they forfeited their
citizenship. A year later, however, the property of Jews who emigrated was
frozen and economic restrictions were placed on Jews who chose to remain in the
country. From 1949 to 1951, 104,000 Jews were evacuated from Iraq in Operations
Ezra and Nehemiah; another 20,000 were smuggled out through Iran. In 1952,
Iraq's government barred Jews from emigrating and publicly hanged two Jews
after falsely charging them with hurling a bomb at the Baghdad office of the
U.S. Information Agency.
With the rise of competing
Ba'ath factions in 1963, additional restrictions were placed on the remaining
Iraqi Jews. The sale of property was forbidden and all Jews were forced to
carry yellow identity cards. After the Six-Day War, more repressive measures
were imposed: Jewish property was expropriated; Jewish bank accounts were
frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts; businesses were shut; trading
permits were cancelled; telephones were disconnected. Jews were placed under
house arrest for long periods of time or restricted to the cities.
Persecution was at its
worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the discovery of a local
"spy ring" composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen men-eleven of
them Jews-were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged in the public
squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27, 1969, Baghdad Radio
called upon Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast." Some 500,000 men,
women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the bodies of
the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted "Death to Israel"
and "Death to all traitors." This display brought a world-wide public
outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: "We hanged spies, but
the Jews crucified Christ." (Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam
Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf, p. 34).
Jews remained under
constant surveillance by the Iraqi government. Max Sawadayee, in "All
Waiting to be Hanged" writes a testimony of an Iraqi Jew (who later
escaped): "The dehumanization of the Jewish personality resulting from
continuous humiliation and torment...have dragged us down to the lowest level
of our physical and mental faculties, and deprived us of the power to
recover.".
In response to
international pressure, the Baghdad government quietly allowed most of the
remaining Jews to emigrate in the early 1970's, even while leaving other
restrictions in force. Most of Iraq's remaining Jews are now too old to leave.
They have been pressured by the government to turn over title, without
compensation, to more than $200 million worth of Jewish community property.
(New York Times, February 18, 1973).
Only one synagogue
continues to function in Iraq, "a crumbling buff-colored building tucked
away in an alleyway" in Baghdad. According to the synagogue's
administrator, "there are few children to be bar-mitzvahed, or couples to
be married. Jews can practice their religion but are not allowed to hold jobs
in state enterprises or join the army." (New York Times Magazine, February
3, 1985).
In 1991, prior to the Gulf
War, the State Department said "there is no recent evidence of overt
persecution of Jews, but the regime restricts travel, (particularly to Israel)
and contacts with Jewish groups abroad.".
Persecutions continued,
especially after the Six-Day War in 1967, when many of the remaining 3,000 Jews
were arrested and dismissed from their jobs. Finally In Iraq all the Jews were
forced to leave between 1948 and 1952 and leave everything behind. Jews were
publicly hanged in the center of Baghdad with enthusiastic mob as audience.
The Jews were persecuted
throughout the centuries in all the Arabic speaking countries. One time, Baghdad
was one-fifth Jewish and other communities had first been established 2,500
years ago. Today, approximately 61 Jews are left in Baghdad and another 200 or
so are in Kurdish areas in the north. Only one synagogue remains in Bataween, -
once Baghdad's main Jewish neighborhood.- The rabbi died in 1996 and none of
the remaining Jews can perform the liturgy and only a couple know Hebrew.
(Associated Press, March 28, 1998).
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NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN SPAIN BY THE MUSLIMS
In Spain, the Caliphs had
great interest in their scholarly Jews, in the reign of Caliph Abderahman III,
had a Jewish minister, Hasdai ben Issac, whom he greatly valued; the whole
Jewish nation was historically judged by single specimens, which in this case
influenced the Caliph in his general policy towards the Jews.
Hanoch ben Moses, another
Jew who had great powers and privileges had the title of Nagid, or prince, of
the Jewish community in Spain. Just like Daniel in Babylon and Joseph in Egypt,
God appoints a Jew for the purpose of preserving His chosen people. He was one
of the most famous of the Jewish notables of Moslem Spain. Beginning life as a
shopkeeper, Samuel HaLevi ultimately became the chief minister at the court of
Granada. By virtue of this office he became the political head of the Jews in
Granada and probably thus received the title Nagid ("Prince"), his
name becoming Samuel HaNagid. He served his community as rabbi and did a great
deal to further Jewish learning throughout the world. Samuel was a fine
linguist, a scholar, a diplomat, and a distinguished soldier. His reputation in
the Middle Ages was based mainly on his excellent poetry, some of which was
written even on the battlefield.
The following account of
his life is taken from Sefer Seder ha-Kabbalah ("The Line of
Tradition"), a Hebrew historical work written by Abraham ibn Daud of
Toledo in 1161:
One of the great disciples
of Rabbi Enoch [d. 1014], was Rabbi Samuel HaLevi, the Prince, the son of
Joseph, who was known as Ibn Nagrela, of the community of Cordova. He was an
unusually fine Talmudic scholar and was also well versed in Arabic literature
and language. He was of the type that could occupy a high position in the royal
palace.
Samuel was a merchant,
supporting himself with great difficulty until the devastating days in Spain
which followed the fall of the Amirid kingdom when the Berbers secured the
power. [The civil war, which began in Spain in 1009, reached its climax in 1012
in the sack of Cordova by the Berbers.]
It was then that the land
of Cordova began to decline and its inhabitants fled. Some of them ran away to
Saragossa, where their descendants are even now; some fled to Toledo and their
descendants are known there even to this day.
This Rabbi Samuel HaLevi
fled to Malaga. There he had a shop and was a petty merchant. His shop happened
to be near the palace of Ibn alArif, the vizier of King Habbus [10191038], the
son of Maksan, the King of the Berbers, in Granada. At the request of a maid
servant of the vizier, Samuel used to write letters for her to her master the
vizier, Abu alKasim ibn alArif. This latter saw his letters and was amazed at
his wisdom.
Some time later this
vizier, Ibn alArif, got permission of his king, Habbus, to return to his home
in Malaga. There he asked the people of his house: "Who used to write
those letters that came to me from you?" "A certain Jew," they
answered, "who comes from the community of Cordova and lives near your
palace-he used to write them for us." Immediately the secretary issued a
command and they rushed Rabbi Samuel HaLevi to him. "It is unbecoming for
you to sit in a shop," he said to him. "Stay here with me." He
did so and became his secretary and adviser.
The vizier used to advise
the King according to the advice given by Rabbi Samuel HaLevi, of blessed
memory.
All his advice was as
though it came from God, and the King Habbus prospered through it very much.
After some time the vizier, Ibn alArif, became mortally ill, and King Habbus,
who came to visit him, said to him: "What shall I do? Who will advise me
in the wars which encompass me?" "I have never advised you," he
answered him, "out of my own mind, but at the suggestion of this Jew, my
secretary. Take care of him, and he will be as a father and a minister to you.
Do whatever he advises you, and God will help you." So after the death of
the vizier, King Habbus took Rabbi Samuel HaLevi and brought him to his palace
and he became his vizier and councillor.
In the year 4780 [l020] he
was in the palace of the King Habbus. [Samuel was already an important official
before 1020.] The king had two sons: the name of the elder was Badis, and the
younger, Bulukkin. All the Berber princes favored Bulukkin, the younger son, as
the successor, but all the rest of the people favored Badis. The Jews, too, and
among them Rabbi Joseph ibn Migas, Rabbi Isaac ben Leon, and Rabbi Nehemiah,
who was called Escafa, three Granada notables, favored Bulukkin, but Rabbi Samuel
HaLevi favored Badis.
On the day that King Habbus
died, the Berber princes and their distinguished men rose in the morning to
crown his son Bulukkin. Bulukkin, however, immediately went and kissed the hand
of his elder brother Badis. Thus Badis was crowned in the year 4787 [1027] and
the face of his enemies turned black like the bottom of a pot; and against
their will they had to crown Badis. [Badis was really crowned in 1038 and died
in 1073.]
After this Bulukkin
regretted that he had made his brother king and kept on getting the upper hand
over his brother Badis, with the result that King Badis was unable to do a
thing, big or small, without his brother's interference. But after this his
brother Bulukkin became sick, and the King gave orders to the physician not to
cure him. The physician obeyed, and Bulukkin died. Thus was the kingdom
established in the hands of Badis. These three distinguished Jews of the city,
whom we have mentioned, fled to the land of Seville [then hostile to Granada].
Rabbi Samuel HaLevi was
appointed Prince in the year 4787 [1027], and he conferred great benefits on
Israel in Spain, in north-eastern and north central Africa, in the land of
Egypt, in Sicily, well as far as the Babylonian academy, and the Holy City,
Jerusalem. All the students who lived in those lands benefited by his
generosity, for he bought numerous copies of the Holy Scriptures, the Mishnah,
and the Talmud-these, too, being holy writings. [Ibn Daud here refutes the
Karaites who denied the authority of the Mishnah and the Talmud.]
To every one-in all the
land of Spain and in all the lands that we have mentioned-who wanted to make
the study of the Torah his profession, he would give of his money. He had
scribes who used to copy Mishnahs and Talmuds, and he would give them as a gift
to students, in the academies of Spain or in the lands we have mentioned, who
were not able to buy them with their own means. [Printing was not yet invented.
Manuscripts were very expensive.] Besides this, he furnished olive oil every year
for the lamps of the synagogues in Jerusalem. He spread the knowledge of the
Torah [Jewish learning] very widely and died an old man, at a ripe age, after
having acquired the four crowns: the crown of the Torah, the crown of high
station, the crown of Levitical descent, and what is more than all these, the
crown of a good name merited by good deeds. He died in the year 4815 [1055] and
his son, Rabbi Joseph HaLevi, the Prince, succeeded him. [It is more probable
that Samuel died in 1056 or later when Joseph (b. 1035), succeeded him as
vizier.]
Of all the good traits of
his father, Joseph lacked but one. He was not humble like his father because
he grew up in riches, and he never had to bear the yoke [of poverty and
discipline] in his youth. He was proud to his own hurt, and the Berber princes
were jealous of him, with the result that on the Sabbath, on the 9th of Tebet
in the year 4827 [Saturday, December 30, 1066], he and the Community of Granada
were murdered. [About 150 families were killed. This is the first known
massacre of Jews in Spain by Moslems.]
All those who had come from
distant lands to see his learning and his greatness mourned for him, and the
lament for him spread to all lands and to all cities. Since the days of the
ancient rabbis - of blessed memory-who wrote the Scroll of Fasts and decreed
that the 9th of Tebet should be a fast, the reason for the decree was never
known. But from this incident we know that they were directed by the Holy
Spirit to fix this day. After his death his books and treasures were scattered
and dispersed throughout the world So also were the disciples whom he had
raised up. After his death they became the rabbis of Spain and the leaders of
the generation. (Sassoon, D. S., "Diwan of the Vizier Samuel Hannaghid,"
The Jewish Chronicle, (London), March 28, 1924).
Another Jew, Samuel ha-Levi
ibin-Nagrela, or Samuel Ha-Nagid, as he was called, was a first-rate
theologian, a poet and the minister for the Caliph. Later the Jews were accused
with false charges of converting their neighbors, 1,500 families were
persecuted and had to leave Granada (1066) to other cities.
In Almohade Dynasty
(Al-Mahdeyeen), who were fanatic warriors. Abdel-Mumen, gave two choices to
both Jews and Christians, Islam or Exile. Many Jews and Christian secretly
preferred to Exile than convert.
Many other notable Jewish
men contributed to the Islamic world. Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1021-1070) in poetry
and philosophy, Maimonaides (1135-1204) and many others. When Jews were
perceived as having achieved too comfortable a position in Islamic society,
anti-Semitism would surface, often with devastating results: On December 30,
1066, Joseph HaNagid, the Jewish vizier of Granada, Spain, was crucified by an
Arab mob that proceeded to raze the Jewish quarter of the city and slaughter
its 5,000 inhabitants. The riot was incited by Muslim preachers who had angrily
objected to what they saw as inordinate Jewish political power.
▲
NAZI - ISLAM CONNECTION, THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS - CONCLUSION
These facts presented here
are an important element necessary for a just trial in the question presented
by Colin Chapman and the "common" opinions passed down by the power
of tradition and one sided historical reviews.In the light of all these
historic facts, one would wonder, why would Colin Chapman concludes: "Both
people[Jew and Arab], know the meaning of the word 'suffering' and
'injustice" (Whose Promised Land, p196).
For the suffering caused to
Arabs from the wars, it is obvious the Arabs suffered wars and losses from wars
but the question remains when were the Arabs persecuted by Jews? Asking such a
question would have waves of answers, but after a close and honest examination
the flood will prove to be just another mirage. It is important to mention that
none of these facts presented in this section are taught in any Arab or Muslim
society, Islam and the Middle East has no freedom of expression.
▲
WHAT DO THE PALESTINIANS TEACH IN SCHOOLS, MEDIA, AND MOSQUES
▲
THE JEWS - GUILTY FOR ANY TRUMPED UP CHARGE
My experience:
When I was a child a hungry
young cousin of mine had picked up a piece of bread off the ground outside of
the house. The kid was caught by my grand mother just before she intended to
eat it, she was reprimanded "Don't you know the Jews are putting bread in
front of Arab houses which are tainted with poison?". I never knew that
grandma's suspicions would turn to a national accusation. Even while going to
school we are sometimes warned that the Jews would put chemicals in the school
water to cause sterility. (The Author).
Today's reality is much
worse then my grand mother's fairy tale, Israel is even put on trial for
countless false accusations as an amusement for a world's mock trial. The
bizarre array of surprise accusations by top Palestinian officials, statesmen,
doctors, lawyers, journalists, religious clergy, laboratories, schools,
researchers, advertisements, news media, and including Arafat himself along
with the first lady Suha Taweel. These volumes of accusations includes; arson
attempts on the Temple Mount area, destruction, and the digging of tunnels, the
creation of artificial earthquakes. Terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians
including the spread of arms on the new Palestinian state are blamed on Israel.
Libelous accusations of spreading spoiled corn oil in the West Bank, along with
English Cadbury chocolate tainted with the 'Mad Cow' disease, use of a chemical
agent in attempted assassinations Palestinians, selling sexually-stimulating
gums to Palestinians, spreading cancer agents, even to the point of injecting
Palestinian infants with the HIV virus causing Aids.
Regarding weapons in the
hands of Arab terrorists, Arafat said, "These weapons could be obtained
only from high authorities with great influence on the Israeli side."
(Jerusalem Post, March 22, 1996)
"An unholy conspiracy
of Israeli 'fanatics', who are members of a shadowy group of ex-IDF people
called 'OAS', and Moslem extremists were behind [the Feb.1996] suicide
bombings, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat told foreign
diplomats...Arafat is known to have said last year, before [Ehud] Barak became
[Israel's] foreign minister, that 'Barak is one of the big bosses of the
OAS'..." (Jerusalem Post, Feb.27, 1996)
Referring to the Arab
terrorist attack in Beit Lid, in which 22 Israelis were killed, and other
attacks in 1995, Arafat said, "I have evidences that these terrorist
activities have been done through coordination between these fanatic Islamic
groups and some elements on the Israeli side." (Washington Post, May 2,
1995)
"PLO chairman Yasser
Arafat, in interviews published yesterday, accused IDF troops of aiding the
spread of arms in the territories in a plot to create chaos in Palestinian
self-rule areas...'This weapons trade is being carried out under the auspices
of some Israeli officers in the West Bank and Gaza. This is part of a wicked
plan'..." (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 18 & Feb. 19, 1994)
"Israel has been using
chemical weapons against Palestinians in the territories for 27 months with the
support of the U.S. It's not tear gas, it's chemical weapons." (Yasir
Arafat, Jerusalem Post, April 1, 1990)
▲
LIBELOUS ACCUSATIONS
"Maher al-Dasuki, head
of the Palestinian Consumer Protection Council, said that spoiled corn oil is
being distributed in the West Bank. According to al-Dasuki, the oil is marketed
after having been smuggled in from Israel, where the plastic bottle is refilled
a second time inside the settlements and then distributed with the help of
collaborators...Al-Dasuki emphasized that residents must be on guard regarding
chocolate produced in England, and especially that of Cadbury, which is widely
available on Palestinian markets, since they make use of milk tainted with the
'Mad Cow' disease. Al-Dasuki said that the sale of such chocolate is forbidden
in Britain, but Israeli merchants have smuggled it into the Palestinian areas
and they entice people to buy it via the teacups distributed for free along
with the purchase of each pack."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, December 8, 1997
"Abd Al-Fatah Hamid,
the Head of the Control and Inspection Department in the PA Ministry of
Supplies, said that a committee will work ...against spoiled goods and food
supplies, which are one of Israel's means in its war against Palestinian
society. Hamid said that the source of most of the spoiled food was the
settlements, and pointed to the fact that the Ministry puts much effort in
tracking the settlements and those smuggling spoiled food." (Palestinian
paper, Al-Ayyam, October 29, 1997.)
"Israel has been using
chemical weapons against Palestinians in the territories for 27 months with the
support of the U.S. It's not tear gas, it's chemical weapons." (Yasir
Arafat, Jerusalem Post, April 1, 1990)
"In order to establish
the Temple in place of the Al-Aqsa mosque, Israel employed different methods
starting with arson attempts, destruction, and the digging of tunnels... and
ending with the creation of artificial earthquakes that can be triggered from
afar which will undermine its foundations and will destroy it-and then Israel
will not permit its renovation... but will use the opportunity to complete its
destruction and to establish the [Jewish] Temple in its place..."
(Article, "Al-Aqsa Surrounded by Conspiracies" in the official PA
newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 26, 1997.)
"The failed attempt to
assassinate Khaled Mish'al in Aman raises many questions... In light of the use
of a chemical agent in the attempted assassination and in light of repeated
reports in the Israeli press itself about medical experiments conducted on
Palestinian prisoners, the human rights organizations are being called upon
today... to re-examine the cases of unexplained deaths in Israeli jails and the
cases of prisoners who died of unknown diseases." (Article, the
Palestinian daily Al-Quds, October 15, 1997.
"There is an Israeli
mafia which is distributing spoiled food products under the aegis of Israeli
generals in the territories of the Palestinian Authority... they are
distributors of death." (PA Deputy Minister of Supplies Abdel Hamid
al-Qudsi in a speech before businessmen at the Chamber of Commerce in Tulkarem
(Itim news agency, July 9, 1997).
"Israel is
distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm
male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's
territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population. We
absolutely feel that it is an organized plan and conspiracy which is under the
auspices of the Israel Defense Forces... this is a planned and initiated war
against the Palestinian people." (PA Deputy Minister of Supplies Abdel
Hamid al-Qudsi in a newspaper interview, Yediot Aharonot, June 25, 1997.)
"Laboratory tests made
on seven brands of Israeli gum smuggled into the West Bank and Gaza showed they
contain a sexually-stimulating adrenaline substance." (Saleh Abdulal, Director
of the Inspection Department of the PA Ministry of Supplies, quoted by the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, May 26, 1997.)
"They brought Russian
Jewish girls with AIDS to spread the disease among Palestinian youth."
(Abdel-Razek Al-Majeeda, Commander of the Palestinian General Security Service
in Gaza, quoted by the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, May 15,
1997.)
"Since the very
beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli governments were anxious to
apply the most dangerous ethnic cleansing theory against the Palestinian
people. According to their racist ideology, the Israeli policy makers were
dedicated to capturing a land without a people for a people without a
land." (PA Information Ministry press release, March 29, 1997.)
"Israeli
authorities... infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV
virus during the years of the intifada." (Palestinian representative Nabil
Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
(Jerusalem Post, March 17, 1997).
▲
THE JEWS ARE ILLEGITIMATE
"The archeology of
Jerusalem is diverse - excavations in the Old City and the areas surrounding it
revealed Umayyad Islamic palaces, Roman ruins, Armenian ruins and others, but
nothing Jewish. Outside of what is mentioned written in the Old and New
Testaments, there is no tangible evidence of any Jewish traces remains in the
old city of Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity."
--- PA Information Ministry
Press Release, December 10, 1997.
"Why do the Jews from
all over the world gather together to establish their false state on the Land
of Palestine when the true owners of the land are prevented from establishing
their state on it?"
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, December 9, 1997.
"There is no people or
land named Israel. Israel is our patriarch Yaaqoub, peace be upon him, and the
children of Israel are the sons of Yaaqoub... We are the children of Israel....
These people are the children of the Zionist entity, they are the children of
the colonialist entity, they are nothing more than thieves. They came and took
land which does not belong to them. Therefore, the normalization of relations
with them is impossible.... even if Palestine remains occupied for hundreds of
years... These Zionists are not fit to establish a nation or to have their own
language or even their own religion. They are nothing more than a
hodgepodge." (Iinterview with Islamic author Safi Naz Kassam published in
the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, September 1, 1997. )
"The words 'State of
Israel' should be replaced with 'Zionist entity' in the Palestinian
lexicon." (Suleiman Roumi, member of the PA Legislative Council (Al-Hayat
Al-Jadeeda, August 10, 1997).
"High-ranking officials
in Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry and Antiquities Office recently stole a
stone from the Umayyad Palaces located in the vicinity of Al-Haram Al-Kudsi
[The Al-Aksa and Dome of the Rock Mosques in Jerusalem]...This stone was sent
to Germany for special laboratory tests...in order to prove the claim that the
stone belonged to their alleged temple... Hamad Yusef, head of The Institution
for the Rejuvenation of the Palestinian Heritage, said that the aim in
analyzing the stone was to prove the false historical claim of the Jews in the
holy city, a claim which they were unable to prove in all of the excavations
conducted by foreign groups for the past hundred years, as well as in the
Israeli excavations being carried out under the foundations of Al-Haram
Al-Kudsi for the past thirty years. Hamad accused the Israelis of unprecedented
historical forgeries, emphasizing the Palestinian, the Arab and the Islamic
nature of the holy city for the past 6000 years. Israel fails in her attempt to
find a historical connection to Jerusalem." (Article in the Palestinian
daily Al-Ayyam, July 18, 1997)
▲
THE JEWS ARE THE DEVIL
"It is important to
conduct the conflict according to the foundations which both are leaning
on...particularly the Jews...such as the Torah, the Talmud and the Protocols
[of the elders of Zion]... All signs unequivocally prove that the conflict
between the Jews and the Muslims is an eternal and on-going conflict, even if
it stops for short intervals... This conflict resembles the conflict between
man and Satan... This is the fate of the Muslim nation, and beyond that the
fate of all of the nations of the world, to be tormented by this nation [the
Jews]. The fate of the Palestinian people is to struggle against the Jews on
behalf of the Arab peoples, the Islamic peoples and the peoples of the entire
world."(Palestinian Researcher Ahmed al-Awadeh, published in the official
PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, September 1, 1997. )
▲
THE JEWS ARE RACIST
"There are many
indications that the American initiative, in case it is proposed, will reflect
a strong bias toward the Zionist-racist solution to the Palestine problem... It
will adopt the idea of giving the name 'Palestinian State' to lands crowded with
Palestinian population and construction in the West Bank and Gaza... Hard
conditions will be forced on this state which will be demilitarized and limited
[in authority] enabling the Zionist entity to control its affairs in such a way
that will make this state to look like a series of "enclaves" within
the Zionist-racist entity called 'Israel.'"
--- from an interview with
Palestinian National Council member Ahmad Sidqi al-Dajani which appeared in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda on October 20, 1997.
"Zionist thought gave
birth to political Zionism ... this blind military power and extreme racism.
For one hundred years the Zionist movement has been spreading the poison of
Zionist ideology... What is happening these days, expresses this ideology which
their children suckle with their mother's milk...When the UN General Assembly
defined Zionism as a form of racism, it expressed this as a fact, a fact which
is backed up by Israeli operations which the human conscience cannot bear.
Zionism remains ... another face of racism, despite all the pressure the US has
put in order to change the UN decision or to cancel it... Accordingly, we are
facing a Zionist ideology which belongs to a dynasty of dinosaurs. And if human
history has swallowed all the dynasties of dinosauran ideologies from Hulagu
[the Mongolian conqueror] to Hitler, in addition to the racist ideology in
South Africa, the survival of Zionist ideology on this piece of our planet, is
a deviant phenomenon and a historical lie..."
--- PA Under-Secretary for
Culture Yihya Yakhlaf, Al-Ayyam, August 7, 1997.
"The Israeli
colonialist occupation of Palestine is turning into aggression against all
Islam and Christian holy sites. Zionist racism reaches its peak with this
Talmudic offensive, which tears the pages of the Koran, and which offends the
Master of Prophets, Muhammad, Allah's blessing be with him, and the Blessed
Virgin, mother of Christ, may they rest in peace."
--- Hasan Al-Kashef,
Director-General of the PA Information Ministry, quoted in the official PA
newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 7, 1997.
Please compare these
awakening few recent quotations by their leader Mr. Yasser Arafat the winner of
a Noble Peace Prize, and leading corrupt figures in the Palestinian Authority
to Nazi and Russian Pogroms statements against the Jews:
▲
THE JEWS SPREAD DISEASE
Muhammad Dahlan, head of
Arafat's Preventive Security Service in Gaza, in an interview with the Hamas
newspaper Al-Risallah (cited in Ha'aretz, 15 June 1997) Slander against Israel:
"Israel is distributing food containing cancer-causing material and
hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the
Palestinian Authority's territories, in order to poison and harm the
Palestinian population. We absolutely feel it is an organized plot and
conspiracy under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces -- this is a planned
and initiated war against the Palestinian people.".
"Israeli
authorities... infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV
virus during the years of the Intifada." --- Palestinian U.N.
representative Nabil Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva (Jerusalem Post, 17 March 1997).
These kind of accusations
have been going on for centuries in order to condemn the Jews. The
inquisitions, Russian Pogroms, Nazis, and Arab propaganda have always used
sinister schemes in order to promote hate to the Jew. These schemes are and has
always been expressed in the political, educational, and religious enteties in
Palestine.
▲
THE JEWS SPILL BLOOD
"Jews Spread Death and
Spill Blood": In an October 31, 1997 article in Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, Fuad
Abu Hijla condemned "those who spread death and murder and spill blood,
and who are said to be our cousins and, like us, 'the children of Abraham,'
despite the fact that Abraham did not immigrate to Poland, did not visit New
York and New Jersey, and did not live in Russia."
▲
THE JEWS ARE LEACHES
"...A doctor currently
dealing with the national dialogue says: "...in my experience Israeli
blood is AB minus - which takes from everyone and doesn't give to anyone except
those of his own [blood] type - while Palestinian blood is O minus - which
gives to everyone and takes only from his own type..." Generosity is an
Arab custom and stinginess is a Jewish custom. Therefore, it is only natural
that we give and they take. We are killed and they incarcerate! We build and
they destroy! We agree and they refuse! We make commitments and they close us
off!"
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 5, 1997.
"We believe that the
Israelis are not adventuresome because the Jewish brain is cowardly and does
not tend toward adventure, but rather exchanges it for plotting... These things
have to be said as a description of the situation, and as a description of the
baseness of this reactionary and cruel American Jewish world."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997.
▲
THE JEWS ARE SHYLOCKS
"Whoever comes in
contact with the banks discovers that they act in Shylock's way.... We do not
want Shylock-style banks that empty our pockets, but national banks; we have
had enough of the Shylock of the lands and settlements."
(Article "The Banks
and Shylock" in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by the
paper's editor Hafez al-Barghouti, November 5, 1997.)
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 16, 1997.
"We are fighting and
struggling with an enemy who is Shylock. We must know that he is Shylock."
--- Othman Abu Gharbiya, PA
Chairman Yasser Arafat's Adviser on National Political Guidance, in an
interview with the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, March 15,
1997.
▲
THE JEWS ARE BLOOD SUCKERS
"The portrait of the
usurious Jew painted by Shakespeare in his well-known masterpiece, "The
Merchant of Venice" did not ignite a Jewish attack accusing him of
anti-Semitism, since it fit the general view held by Europeans at that time,
when the European continent...vomited the Jews to the periphery... The Israelis
wish to contain Christian pilgrims in the year 2000...put them next to the
settlers who have their sights set on large financial compensation and
immediate profit out of land ownership which has been confiscated by a mayor
backed by fanatical religious and nationalistic trends and by a millionaire
usurer who comes from across the ocean...At this moment the portrait of the
Shakespearean hero reappears...and all signs point to the fact that this
merchant of Venice will become a new Dracula."
(The Legend of Jewish
Superiority?!" in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, November 11, 1997.)
"...It is impossible to
rely on international or Arab national circles as long as Netanyahu's claws of
hatred dive into our Palestinian blood in search of oxygen-rich blood
cells...our movement found in Netanyahu something it could not ignore which is
the dismemberment of the agreement by the fangs of hatred and the chewing of
the peace by the teeth of the Talmud... We must recognize that this stubborn
enemy, locks itself in the Talmud's cocoon..."
--- excerpts from a
position paper issued by Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO and published
in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 18, 1997.
"The [Palestinian]
Authority cannot do a thing, except protect its people and itself from an enemy
which bares its Jewish fangs from the four corners of the earth...
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 6, 1997.
▲
THE FACES OF PEACE
The Palestinian National
Council:
On the basis of the
Palestinian National Charter and the Political
Programme drawn up at the
eleventh session, held from January 6-12,
1973; and from its belief
that it is impossible for a permanent and just
peace to be established in
the area unless our Palestinian people
recover all their national
rights and, first and foremost, their rights
to return and to
self-determination on the whole of the soil of their
homeland; and in the light
of a study of the new political circumstances
that have come into
existence in the period between the Council's last
and present sessions,
resolves the following:
1. To reaffirm the
Palestine Liberation Organization's previous attitude
to Resolution 242, which
obliterates the national right of our people
and deals with the cause of
our people as a problem of refugees. The
Council therefore refuses
to have anything to do with this resolution at
any level, Arab or
international, including the Geneva Conference.
2. The Liberation
Organization will employ all means, and first and
foremost armed struggle, to
liberate Palestinian territory and to
establish the independent
combatant national authority for the people
over every part of
Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will
require further changes
being effected in the balance of power in favour
of our people and their
struggle.
3. The Liberation
Organization will struggle against any proposal for a
Palestinian entity the
price of which is recognition, peace, secure
frontiers, renunciation of
national rights and the deprival of our
people of their right to
return and their right to self-determination on
the soil of their homeland.
4. Any step taken towards
liberation is a step towards the realization
of the Liberation
Organization's strategy of establishing the democratic
Palestinian state specified
in the resolutions of previous
Palestinian National
Councils.
5. Struggle along with the
Jordanian national forces to establish
a Jordanian-Palestinian
national front whose aim will be to set up in Jordan a democratic national
authority in close contact with the Palestinian entity that is established
through the struggle.
6. The Liberation
Organization will struggle to establish unity in struggle between the two
peoples and between all the forces of the Arab liberation movement that are in
agreement on this programme.
7. In the light of this
programme, the Liberation Organization will struggle to strengthen national
unity and to raise it to the level where
it will be able to perform
its national duties and tasks.
8. Once it is established,
the Palestinian national authority will
strive to achieve a union
of the confrontation countries, with the aim
of completing the
liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step
along the road to
comprehensive Arab unity.
9. The Liberation
Organization will strive to strengthen its solidarity
with the socialist
countries, and with forces of liberation and progress
throughout the world, with
the aim of frustration all the schemes of
Zionism, reaction and
imperialism.
10. In light of this
programme, the leadership of the revolution will
determine the tactics which
will serve and make possible the realization
of these objectives.
The Executive Committee of
the Palestine Liberation Organization will make every effort to implement this
programme, and should a situation arise affecting the destiny and the future of
the Palestinian people, the National Assembly will be convened in extraordinary
session. (Political Programme Adopted at the 12th Session of the Palestinian
National Council Cairo, June 9, 1974).
▲
HISTORICAL FABRICATIONS
Yasir Arafat the Noble
Peace Prize winner stated:
"Abraham was neither
Jewish nor a Hebrew, but was simply an Iraqi. The Jews have no right to claim
part of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Abraham's resting place, as a
synagogue. Rather, the whole building should be a mosque." (Yasir Arafat,
quoted in the Jerusalem Report, Dec. 26, 1996)
"The Palestinian
Authority is now claiming that Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem is the traditional
tomb of the Cushite servant of Mohammed." (Ha'aretz, Oct.9, 1996)
"That is not the Western Wall at all, but a Moslem
shrine." (Yasir Arafat, quoted in Ma'ariv, Oct. 11, 1996)
"The people of Israel
realize perfectly well that they have no temples or ruins near Al Aqsa Mosque.
According to the Koran, the people of Israel lived somewhere to the west of
Bethlehem...they were living in Bethlehem and not in Jerusalem." (Sheikh
Ismail Jamal, the PLO's Director of the Islamic Wakf in Jericho, quoted in the
Chicago Jewish Sentinel, May 18, 1995)
Arafat once "convened
a conference of the international press to claim that an imprint of an ancient
Judean coin on the Israeli 10-agorot coin was Israel's imperialistic expansion
map. This coin, he said, shows that Israel plans to conquer Jordan, Syria, Lebanon
and parts of Egypt and Saudi Arabia." (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 22, 1995)
"... 'Netanyahu's
Plan' completely matches the foundations of the greater Zionist plan which is
organized according to specific stages that were determined when the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion were composed and when Herzl along with Weizmann traveled
around the world in order to determine the appropriate location for the
implementation of this conspiracy." (article in the official PA newspaper
Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 30, 1997).
▲
PALESTINIAN SCHOOLS
Palestinian Arab Schools
Promote Hatred, Not Peace. Arafat's Orders: Schools Must Teach That Israel's
Existence Is A "Catastrophe"
"The Palestinian
Education Ministry has decided that the topic [Balfour Declaration] will now be
introduced into the Palestinian educational curriculum...every year, on
November 2, teachers will devote a lesson to studying the Balfour Declaration
and its 'catastrophic' ramifications on the Palestinian people. Likewise, the
Palestinian news media, including the radio and television, will dedicate
special programs to the topic...Teachers and educators were asked to explain to
students that the anniversary is a 'painful' memorial and a 'disaster' for the
Palestinian people." (Khaled Abu Tuama, correspondent for the weekly
Jerusalem newspaper)
Palestinian Arab
denunciations of the Balfour Declaration are therefore, a rejection of the idea
that a Jewish state of any size has a right to exist.
Israeli daily Ha'aretz
reported describing the first of the PA's new school textbook The New History
of the Arabs and the World which according to the report "compares Zionism
with Nazism and describes the Talmud as a book of hatred toward gentiles...is
to be used in most of the Palestinian Authority's schools...also claims Zionism
advocated the liquidation [of the Palestinian Arabs]..."the racist and
aggressive nature of the Zionist movement,....the basic similarity between
Nazism, Fascism, and Zionism." (November 3, 1999)
▲
THE MUSLIM CLERGY IN JERUSALEM
It seems that nothing
changed since Haj Al-Ameen Al-Husseni's Nazi propaganda, Ikrima Sabri is
another carbon copy of the original Muftis:
"Oh, Allah, destroy
America for it is controlled by Zionist Jews...Allah will avenge, in the name
of his Prophet, the colonialist settlers who are the descendants of monkeys and
pigs...forgive us, oh Muhammad, for the acts of these monkeys and pigs who
wished to profane your holiness".
(from the weekly Friday
prayer sermon by PA Mufti Ikrima Sabri broadcast on the official PA radio
station the Voice of Palestine, July 11, 1997.
When comparing Sabri with
his predecessors before him, it is understood that much in common they have
since Islamic fundamentals are what fuels their speeches and rhetoric. One
could fairly say in Palestine "once a Mufti always a Mufti".
"Israeli
authorities... infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV
virus during the years of the Intifada." (Friday prayer sermon by PA Mufti
Ikrima Sabri from the Temple Mount(Al-Aqsa Mosque) broadcasted on the official
PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, July 11, 1997.).
"Jerusalem is a symbol
for every Muslim in the world. The claim of the Jews to the right over it is
false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic
supervision..." (PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri, Al-Bilad, July 31, 1997)
"The Zionist entity
exists on seized land. The Jews remain enemies because they expropriate lands,
build settlements and pay high sums to buy properties. They are the greatest
enemies of us Muslims." (PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri in a newspaper interview
(The New York Times, May 18, 1997)
"The existing State of
Israel is not worthy of ruling since they know no religion and no God."
(Sheikh Hamid Al-Bitawi, chairman of the Palestine Religious Scholars
Association and head of the PA's Sharia Court of Appeals in Nablus, in an
interview with the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997.)
"...The Jews always
set a trap for the community of Muslims... The Koran repeatedly warns against
the traps and plots of the "people of the book". They relentlessly
scheme in all times and places and this is what they do today and tomorrow
against the Muslim camp..." (An excerpt from the weekly Friday prayer
sermon at Al-Aqsa mosque broadcast on the official PA radio station the Voice
of Palestine, October 24, 1997).
▲
THE PALESTINIAN MEDIA
"Egypt declared its
absolute refusal to grant a prize to Israel--the convening of the Doha
summit--and displayed its indifference to American pressure-tactics employed by
the Judaized Congress."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by its editor Hafez al-Barghouti,
November 18, 1997.
"There is a need to
formulate a clear information plan... In order for us to oppose the Zionist
media, which dominates more than half of the media in the world - newspapers,
radio and television."
--- from a program on the
official PA television station about the media, December 3, 1997.
"Israeli society
started feeling ashamed of Netanyahu's rise to the highest position of
power...when all of his qualities amount to his outdated Talmudic arrogance and
his absolute belief that he is the spoiled child of Brooklyn's nymphs."
--- from a communiqué issued
by Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO, quoted in the official PA
newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 4, 1997.
"We did not take into
account the way of thinking of the other side which is a Jewish mentality based
on the love of controlling everything, and which does not easily grants others
their rights..."
--- from an article in the
Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds (November 1, 1997).
US Ambassador-Designate to
Israel Edward Walker "underwent extensive hearings in the Congress or,
that is, in the 'Council of the Elders of Zion', in order to win his
post."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by its editor Hafez al-Barghouti,
October 30, 1997.
"This is a pitiful
show that expresses nothing other than the Talmudic quarrel-mongering mentality
that rules Netanyahu and the members of his group who govern Tel Aviv......But
we know that Netanyahu did not change and will not change because [not even]
lipstick could make his blood-sucking lips beautiful...
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 29, 1997.
"The White House is a
hostage of 'the two prisons' or the two Houses-the Senate and the House of
Representatives, which are more extreme than the 'elders of Zion.'"
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by the paper's editor Hafez
al-Barghouti, October 14, 1997.
"...We exude the scent
of jasmine...throughout the world, and they release the darkness and hatred of
the mobs with the long beards over the land. We declare life...while they have
shut themselves up behind death and have been entrenching themselves in its
excavations for the last fifty years, which is also their age, the age of
evil..."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 11, 1997.
"The soldiers of the
Talmudic offensive do not hesitate to call openly for revenge against
Christianity for having persecuted European Jewry... we know that Jesus was a
victim of the roots of Talmudic extremism, which is currently waving a national
flag, wearing a helmet of a national army and employing state-run terrorism by
means of armed settlers and an army."
--- Hasan Al-Kashef,
Director-General of the PA Information Ministry, quoted in the official PA
newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 7, 1997.
"Announcer: The
occupation is shooting at children, women and infants... The latest reports
reaching us from Hebron prove that the occupation forces have opened fire on
children, women and infants...".
Voice of a Hebron resident:
"...our enemies have no mercy and no heart... this shows that they have no
conscience. Their hearts are like stone. They are not human beings. One can not
compare them to people. They are like animals, they are like animals."
--- Report from the daily
news program on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, June 24,
1997.
"O our beautiful land
imprisoned in a cage and surrounded by wolves, My shaded garden, the tormentors
have destroyed you, and the dogs have settled in you, O Jerusalem, O my city,
With my notebook and pencil and the fire of my rifle I will shatter the cage, I
will kill the wolves and plant the flag. The dogs will not bark in the heroic
cities."
--- poem read on the Voice
of Palestine, the official PA radio station, on May 22, 1997 during the morning
news program "A New Day" as part of a series of "Songs of the
Homeland". The poem was read on the Voice of Palestine during the
September 1996 riots.
"We must not lay aside
the blade of the Palestinian struggle which we grasp with Arab and
international support, a blade with which we must struggle to shatter the two
elements in the Likud's ideology: the racist-Torah part and the
nationalist-fascist part. This is our fate."
--- PA Minister for Refugee
Affairs Assad Abdel Rahman in an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat
Al-Jadeeda, December 6, 1997.
"The occupation forces
have imposed a siege on the camp of Al-Aroub... whose children set new records
in their opposition to the acts of the occupation with the little stones they
throw from behind the wire fences dozens of meters in height which... show the world
the Nazism of the occupation at the end of the 20th century, in an era known as
'the era of peace'... Al-Aroub residents tell the story of one of the crimes of
'Nazism in a period of peace'...."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, December 8, 1997.
"We must act on the
international level in the framework of a detailed information plan which will
expose the Zionist-Colonialist plot and its goals, which destroy not only our
people but the entire world."
--- PA Agriculture Minister
Abdel Jawad Saleh in an interview with the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat
Al-Jadeeda, November 6, 1997.
▲
JEWS ARE NAZIS
"The appearance of the
Zionist movement prompted the emergence of terrorist, racist ideologies, such
as, the Nazi ideology. There is great similarity between the two ideologies:
the Zionists believe that they are "God's Chosen People," and that
other nations were created to be used and ridiculed... the Zionist Jews claim
that they hate the nations since they persecute them out of jealousy of their
wisdom, their success and their being God's chosen. Similarly, the Nazis claim
that the Aryans are the chosen and the pure and that anti-Semitism is the
punishment of the Jewish Germans who betrayed their country... Of course the
similarity between the two racist ideologies - the Zionist and the Nazi - is
obvious and the despicable racial content of each of them is clear. The Zionist
movement, as well as Nazism, believes that it represents the absolute truth
that must be maintained, otherwise it will lose its value. .. The Nazi ideology
pushed the world into the hell of the Second World War...and during the war
applied all forms of terrorism, exactly as the Zionists are doing now. After
the passing of one hundred years since the establishment of Zionism, here comes
Benyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Zionist enemy, and presents a
Nazi formula when he says that "peace between Israel and the Arabs must be
based on the principle of Israeli strength." Since its establishment, the
racist Zionist entity has been implementing various forms of terrorism on a
daily basis which are a repetition of the Nazi terror. This proves the shared
roots of Nazi and Zionist thought. This also explains the cooperation between
the Jews and the Nazis during World War II, through which were revealed the
forged claims of the Zionists regarding alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated
against the Jews during the same period... There is no difference between
Hitler and Ben-Gurion, and if there was a difference at all, it was one of
quantity and not one of substance. Anyone who investigates the crimes of the
Zionists... discovers explicitly the complementary traits between Zionism,
which is a racist terrorist movement, and the Nazi movement."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, September 3, 1997.
"...The rumor about
the 'superior Jew' versus the 'stupid' others which are not worthy of anything
but of serving as subjects, is spread around the world. The Jews put their best
efforts into creating it. Every genius has to be of Jewish descent; if he is
not of Jewish descent he is forced to make one up for himself. Additionally,
any talented military commander, either his mother is Jewish if his name is
reminiscent of anything Jewish, or, if his mother is not Jewish- then he ends
up being a Jewish agent. The Jews succeeded, during their history, to turn the
massacres they were subjected to into a 'weapon of mass destruction' against
their adversaries and used the weapon of anti-Semitism in an impressive way...
In order to establish their "superiority" they provided proof and
claimed that the founder of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, is a Jew in
origin and blood; that the father of the Theory of Relativity, who changed the
face of science, Albert Einstein, is a Jew inside and out, and that Isaac
Newton, who discovered Gravity, is wholeheartedly a Jew. The best proof of the
Jewish political ability is the Communist Karl Marx, who is also a Jew from
birth. Regarding the millionaires... from Rothschild through Montefiore to
Moskowitz: aren't they sufficient proof of Jewish 'superiority'?"
"Netanyahu was blinded
by the tyranny of power and is interested in total Palestinian and Arab
surrender to his unlimited desires... perhaps in the European style of the
German armies so that he will be able to impose greater Israel and establish
the superiority of the Hebrew race..."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, August 17, 1997.
"While the Israeli
government is speaking about the atrocities committed against the Jews at
Auschwitz, Birkenau and Dachau concentration camps... it is directly involved
these days in weaving plots and causing two major catastrophes to their
neighbors... Our homeland was transformed into a big concentration
camp..."
--- from a PA Information
Ministry press release, April 22, 1997.
Ironically, the view of
Israel as Nazi and Fascist permeates Palestinian News Papers, schools, Mosques,
and even the walls everywhere:
"Jerusalemites and any
other Muslim who is able to reach the gates of the Al-Aqsa mosque for Friday
prayers must report to the Israeli police at the gates to hand in his ID to be
checked and on many occasions is prevented from entry or even arrested. This of
course should remind the Europeans of Nazi occupation by Nazi soldiers
surrounding churches and places of worship during the Second World War. Israeli
practices in many aspects are equal with, if not more brutal than, those
practiced by occupying Nazi soldiers dealing with French-Dutch citizens during
the Second World War."
--- PA Information Ministry
press release, December 10, 1997.
"...the Arab sees with
his own eyes an Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Golan and Lebanon, which
can not be compared to any occupation in this century except the Nazi
occupation..."
--- from an article in the
Palestinian daily Al-Quds, November 17, 1997.
▲
MILITARY OFFICIALS
"What 'Israel' is
trying to do...by way of its control over a number of institutions in the US,
such as the Congress and its allies...reveals the nakedness of those people and
their blind submission to world Zionism...The peace equation was somewhat
violated, since the Zionists were able to demonstrate their power in the
US...that is the power which was clearly revealed in the Zionist American
Congress which led to the terrorizing of the American president and the
administration, through threats of sex and morals scandals which are
disseminated by the obedient media in the US..."
--- Brig. Gen. Khaled
Al-Musmar, Deputy Head of the PA's Indoctrination Directorate, Falastin
Al-Yaum, August 21, 1997.
▲
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
"Five Zionist Jews are
running the policy of the United States in the Middle East: Madeleine Albright,
William Cohen, Dennis Ross, Miller and Martin Indyk. It is not possible that
the American nation, which consists of 250 million people, can not find anyone
other than five Zionist Jews to conduct the peace process with the
Palestinians."
--- PA Justice Minister
Freih Abu Middein (Yediot Aharonot, April 13, 1997).
"Just as Hitler's Mein
Kampf was a warning sign for his future political path which brought disaster
on Germany and the world, so Netanyahu's A Place Among the Nations explains all
of the author's initiatives since he took power in Israel... The racist curses
against the enemy and the legendary praises of himself make a noticeable point
of similarity between Hitler's and Netanyahu's books... Netanyahu tries to calm
Jewish fears about the demographic superiority and the natural Arab birth rates
in Palestine... He does not refer to the means he will employ to achieve the
goal of a reduction of the Arab birth rate... In this point we are reminded of
Hitler's statements about the sterilization of undesired segments of the
population."
--- from an article by
Nahid Munir Al-Rayyis, a member of the PA's Legislative Council (Al-Quds,
October 15, 1997).
▲
THE CIVIL AUTHORITY
"This reminds me of
Goebbels (Hitler's propaganda minister) who said 'tell lies and lies, and in
the end they will believe you.' The same is true of the Jews. It is a disgrace
that they are issuing an arrest warrant against me. Apparently they have
learned Goebbels' methods."
--- PA Police Chief Ghazi
Jabali, in reaction to the arrest warrant issued against him by Israel for his
involvement in terrorist attacks (Maariv, September 12, 1997).
▲
THE HOLOCAUST DENIAL, A FABRICATION?
Short testimony:
Our first black and white
TV was purchased in the 70’s. Joyful of this day my father allowed us to watch
until the channel completed it’s broadcast for the day. That week was a special
week, Israel was showing footage on the holocaust for several days non-stop. We
watched many hours feasting on pop corn laughing and mocking. It is said that
"a picture is worth a thousand words" yet to us a whole footage of
millions of pictures were worth nothing. Even after watching the footage, we
still denied the holocaust as a Jewish fabrication. Some say that it does not
matter what people believed, yet what we believed dictates our actions. Like I
said, the state of the heart is what makes people, not facts, for not many are
concerned about facts. (The Author).
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen),
Arafat's #2 man, and author of the book "The Other Side" accused the
Jews of having a secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement
were less than one million Jews were killed: "the Zionist movement was a
partner in the slaughter of the Jews." (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 26, 1995) .
In a letter to UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan, United Nations Ambassador of Israel Yehuda Lancry protested
"an alarming campaign of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement emanating from
the Arab world," "This campaign of propaganda knows no bounds
demonization of the Israeli enemy, the most abhorrent anti-Semitism and the
denial of the Holocaust have emerged in full force," Lancry wrote. He also
noted that the campaign of rhetoric against Israel has increased as efforts to
promote negotiations are intensified.
General Kofi Annan told the
American Jewish Committee in December he supports permanent status privileges
for Israel in the UN. Annan acknowledged the misguided efforts to isolate
Israel and the "regrettable impression of bias and one-sidedness" at
the UN. Annan did note some progress as anti-Semitism finally was listed as a
form of racism by the General Assembly last year. However, he noted the body
again has just passed anti-Israeli resolutions that "might prejudice the
outcome of delicate [peace] negotiations.".
In the U.S, Holocaust
deniers in the U.S such as Bradley Smith "director" of the
self-styled "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust," (CODOH)
describe as Holocaust "revisionism," has become one of the most
important vehicles for contemporary anti-Semitism.
Bradley and others strategy
is simple and familiar. They distort, even fabricate, history and then
broadcast their creations. They have learned from Hitler that "a lie is
believed because of the insolent inflexibility with which it is
propagated." Smith and his cohorts are engaged in what historian Deborah
Lipstadt has termed an "assault on truth and memory.".
While Holocaust denial and
most conspiracy theories are clear to most Americans to be a historical lie and
taken with a grain of salt by many, in the Middle East, such false ideas are
simply good Media and easily sold to the public as fact. What is thrown out to
the dump in the American West has always found a haven in the Middle East.
Newspapers, School curriculum, and even children school books are plagued with
Holocaust denial and imbued with hate to the point that any attempt to
re-education would be considered a Zionist conspiracy.
Here are but a few
examples:
"Since its
establishment, the racist Zionist entity has been implementing various forms of
terrorism on a daily basis which are a repetition of the Nazi terror... This
also explains the cooperation between the Jews and the Nazis during World War
II, through which were revealed the forged claims of the Zionists regarding
alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated against the Jews during the same
period..."
--- from an article in the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeedah, September 3, 1997.
"Moderator: It is
well-known that every year the Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them. They
claim there were 6 million killed, but precise scientific research demonstrates
that there were no more than 400,000. Has the complex which the Jews have as a
result of the Nazis' actions created within them psychological burdens which
they are now releasing against the Palestinians?
Palestinian author Hassan
Al-Agha: The truth is I do not think so. Psychological baggage after 40 or 50
years... I am skeptical... But I do think that we are talking about an
investment. They have profited materially, spiritually, politically and
economically from the talk about the Nazi killings. This investment is
favorable to them and they view it as a profitable activity so they inflate the
number of victims all the time. In another ten years, I do not know what number
they will reach, Last year, for the first time, a statistic appeared according
to which 1 1/2 million children were killed by the Nazis. This number was not
previously known... If this number was indeed correct, then someone would
certainly have remembered it... In my opinion, it is an investment, and as you
know, when it comes to economics and investments, the Jews have been very experienced
ever since the days of the Merchant of Venice."
--- from a cultural affairs
program broadcast on the official PA television station on August 25, 1997.
"At the end of our
period of imprisonment the time passed very slowly. We felt as if we were being
burned. Imagine...the Jews are saying: "The Nazis burned us in gas
chambers." That is a false tale, but at times I felt that we were those
who were being burned up within the walls..."
--- Abir Al-Wahidi, female
Fatah terrorist released in February 1997, in an interview with the official PA
television station, February 13, 1997.
▲
ARAFAT REVEALED
Arafat and his cabinet who
blames the Jews as thieves pockets 40% of all monies donated by American tax
dollars and the united nations. "Almost all of it is stolen or dribbled
away. The Palestinian Authority's own auditors reported last year that nearly
40 percent of the annual budget - $323 million - was wasted, looted, or
misused. In President Arafat's regime, bribery is endemic, services are nil,
connections are everything, and might is the only right there is". (THE
WASHINGTON POST, Wednesday, December 2, 1998).
Indeed, the world has gone
crazy, for Arafat to win a Noble Prize for peace is amazing. Arafat was
questioned:
Do you feel sometimes that
you made a mistake in agreeing to Oslo?
Arafat: No... no. Allah's
messenger Mohammad accepted the al-Hudaibiya peace treaty and Salah a-Din
accepted the peace agreement with Richard the Lion-Hearted." (Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in a newspaper interview.)
What Yasser Arafat was
referring to is the permission by Allah to break treaties and agreements made
with any enemy since the ten-year pact was broken by Muhammad within two years,
when the Islamic forces, having strengthened during the cease-fire, conquered
the Koreish. Salah a-Din was a Muslim leader who, after a cease-fire, declared
a jihad against the Crusaders and captured Jerusalem. This is the idea and the
plan behind the peace accord with Israel the enemy of Allah.
On Changing the PLO
Covenant, which calls for the total destruction of Israel: "We have no
intention of changing or nullifying the Covenant, rather, we will adhere to it
until our last breath since it embodies the essence of our demands." ---
Tayseer Qaba, deputy chairman of the PLO's Palestine National Council (A-Nahar,
19 September 1995, page 16)
"Jerusalem is the
capital of the state of Palestine whether someone likes it or not, and whoever
does not like it, let him drink from the sea of Gaza." --- P.L.O. Chairman
Yasser Arafat, in a speech given at a party to celebrate the birth of his
daughter (Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, 6 August 1995)
"The Israelis are
mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah
I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the
last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the
walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem." (Yasser Arafat, in a
speech given on 6 August 1995 at a party to celebrate the birth of his
daughter, Haaretz, 6 September 1995; The Jerusalem Post, 7 September 1995).
"Jenin is the first
nail in Israel's coffin. We will agree to leave here only the dead Jews who are
buried here. Like all Palestinians, I am happy that Arafat is here today in a
liberated Palestinian city. With the help of Allah, all the land of Palestine
will be liberated. The Jews must return to where they came from, to their
Diaspora.... Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] visited us and spoke with us...Abu Ammar
also thinks as I do. In the long run - he will get all of Palestine. He will
not give up on one inch of Palestinian land...I don't want to continue living
in Gaza or Jenin. My place is in Palestinian Beersheba." --- Suleiman
Adwan, a PLO policeman and member of the "Al Quds" Brigade, which is
stationed in Jenin (Davar Rishon, 20 November 1995, page 2) On the liberation
of Palestine: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is
liberated." (PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Voice of Palestine, 11 November
1995)
The chameleon can change
colors, but never it's nature.
▲
HIS CONTINUED TIES WITH TERRORISM
The new "mini
Iraq" state headed by Arafat has world recognition including Israel's
favorite ally; the United States. Yet nothing has changed in Arafat's methods
of terrorism. The only thing different is that he can always point the finger
at Hammas while he carries on his campaign of peace. As PA's Justice Minister
Freih Abu Medein sums it best: "The PA and the [Hamas] opposition
complement each other...We regard Hamas and Islamic Jihad as national
elements...The main enemy, now and forever, is Israel." (An Nahar, April
11, 1995; Al Quds, April 14, 1995)
Hammas terrorist group for
example, enjoys more then the full benefits in this new state. The families of
terrorists killed in action in bus bombing and other civilian target attacks
are awarded free air tickets, monthly allowance, and scholarships abroad.
Additional to these benefits, Hammas Receives funding from Palestinian
expatriates, Iran, and private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and other moderate
Arab states. Some fundraising and propaganda activity take place in Western
Europe and North America as well.
The first lady, Suha Tukan
Arafat's wife carries along the mission and support. Parties are thrown in
honor of terrorists, speeches by Arafat and the first lady, and even street
names are given after the names of terrorists.
Hammas, the terrorist
group, born in 1987 in the Gaza Strip. By 1988 as a primary rival to the PLO
Founded on Islamic nationalism, it took advantage of the Intifada which gave
it's birth. Their plan of action was an immediate and unrelenting frontal
assault against Israel. Hammas has known ties to Iran and suspected ties to
individuals in the United States and Western Europe are at the very least
maintaining the groups financial existence. Hammas is one of the leading
terrorist organizations of its kind.
Depending on the outcome of
peace process, if the PLO does not deliver the land to the Palestinians, Hammas
is the likely candidate to take over Palestinian leadership, it has an armed
militant wing known as Izudeen Al-Qassam which carries out numbers of large
scale suicide bombings against Israeli targets. Primary targets are unarmed
Jewish settlers. This makes them all the more appealing as they present the
greatest opportunity for the infliction of casualties.
Hamas' relationship to the
PLO is complex and intertwined, prior to the intifada, a number of Hammas had
joined the PLO; and many current Islamists are former PLO nationalists.
Arafat has refused to
extradite Hammas killers to Israel, shut down Hammas training camps, outlaw
Hammas, or even publicly criticize Hammas by name. Col. Jibril Rajoub, chief of
the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Service, said in a May 27, 1998
interview with Al-Jazira television: "We view Hammas as part of the national
and Islamic liberation movement Outside of the 3 percent [of Judea-Samaria that
is under complete PA control] they can do as they wish. They can go to Jordan
to carry out armed operations and they can also carry out such operations from
Syria. At the top of my list of priorities is the [Israeli] occupation and not
Hammas. We are not interested in arrests."
Arafat said "Hammas,
even its military wing, is a patriotic movement." (The Russian newspaper
Novoya Vremy, May 25, 1997).
Arafat's "Foreign Minister,"
Farouk Kaddoumi, said: "Hamas is part of the national movement and it has
its own style and approach to action. It is resisting the Israeli enemy."
(An Nahar, March 9, 1996)
PA Cabinet Minister Hanan
Ashrawi said: "It is not up to Israel to decide or define who is our
enemy. Hammas is not the enemy, it is part of the political fabric."
(Jerusalem Post, July 25, 1995)
Abbas Zakai of the Fatah
Central Committee said: "[Hamas's attacks] strengthen the Palestinian
position...It would be dangerous to stop these actions, because the accords
will crumble if there is nothing to make Israel go forward." (Al Hayat,
April 17, 1995)
Asked by a reporter about
Hammas, Arafat replied, "There is no confrontation with Hammas and the
Palestinian Authority." (United Press International, September 12, 1996)
PA Justice Minister Freih
Abu Medein said: "The PA and the [Hamas] opposition compliment each
other...We regard Hammas and Islamic Jihad as national elements...The main
enemy, now and forever, is Israel." (An Nahar, April 11, 1995; Al Quds,
April 14, 1995)
PA Cabinet Minister Nabil
Sha'ath said: "We have a brotherly relationship with Hamas."
(Reuters, Oct. 28, 1994)
Hisham Abdel-Razzak, Fatah
leader in Gaza, said: "The dialogue with Hammas will not be broken off.
Hammas is part of the Palestinian people." (United Press International,
Oct. 28, 1994)
Arafat and his Aides Praise
Hamas Terrorists:
"The Engineer",
Yahya Ayyash who led the military wing of Hammas and was well known for his
proficiency as a "bomb maker", suspected of planning seven suicide
bombings in Israel that killed as many as 70 people then killed January 5th,
1996 by improvised explosive device contained within his cellular telephone.
Israeli security officials have neither confirmed nor denied their involvement
in Ayyash's death. After his death, Arafat praised him as a "martyr"
(N.Y.Times, Jan.8, 1996) and had his name given to a public square in
Arafat-controlled Jericho (Peace Watch June 1996 Report, p.15) , and a street
in Beit Lahiya (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 17, 1996)
Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin was called by Arafat as "my brother Ahmed Yassin the warrior."
(New York Times, July 2, 1994) . Following his death of Muhi-Deen Al-Shareef,
another Hamas bomb-maker responsible for dozens of Israeli deaths, Yasser
Arafat's wife, Suha, publicly praised him as "a Palestinian martyr."
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 6, 1998). After the March 1997 suicide
bombing of a Tel Aviv cafe (killing 3 Israeli women), the Palestinian
Legislative Council sent condolences to the family of the bomber Moussa
Ghneimat and praised him as a "holy martyr"(Ma'ariv, March 28, 1997)
Arafat even went as far as
hiring Imad Falouji, a Hamas activist from Gaza, as a Minister Without
Portfolio, and chose Talal Sidr, a Hamas activist from Hebron, as Minister of
Youth. (Jerusalem Post, January .26, 1997).
Besides praises and street
names, Hammas even enjoys exhibitions glorifying terrorism and terrorists, at
A-Najah University, a report praising the exhibition stated:
"The University's
campus was turned into a Palestinian city during the Intifada--dozens of
veiled-face individuals carrying [replica] submachine guns, five machine guns
on the shoulders, swords and other sharp objects which created the Intifada's
unique culture...At the entrance to the "Martyrs' Exhibit," enormous
pictures of holy martyrs who ascended to heaven were drawn...as well as a huge
drawing of a veiled-face youth, carrying a stone in order to throw it at an
occupation patrol(Arafat's official newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadidah, November
23, 1997)
Palestinian Authority's
Preventive Security Service, said in a May 27, 1998 interview with Al- Jazira
television:
"We view Hamas as part
of the national and Islamic liberation movement Outside of the 3 percent [of
Judea-Samaria that is under complete PA control] they can do as they wish. They
can go to Jordan to carry out armed operations and they can also carry out such
operations from Syria. At the top of my list of priorities is the [Israeli]
occupation and not Hammas. We are not interested in arrests. ".
In a statement on June 2,
1998, the Israeli government said that these latest developments prove that
"The Palestinian Authority has failed to wage a systematic campaign
against terrorist groups. The terrorist infrastructure remains in place and the
PA openly approves of terrorist attacks against Israel as long as they do not
implicate the Authority.
Additional evidence of
collaboration between the PA and Hamas:
Arafat and Aides Praise
Hamas
Arafat said "Hamas,
even its military wing, is a patriotic movement." (The Russian newspaper
Novoya Vremy, May 25, 1997).
Arafat publicly praised
Yiyha Ayyash, the master Hamas bomb-maker who killed at least 60 Israelis, as
"a martyr." (Jerusalem Post, July 28, 1996)
Arafat's "Foreign
Minister," Farouk Kaddoumi, said: "Hamas is part of the national
movement and it has its own style and approach to action. It is resisting the
Israeli enemy." (An Nahar, March 9, 1996)
Arafat publicly praised
Hamas bomb-maker Yiyha Ayyash as "the struggler, the martyr."(New
York Times, January 8, 1996)
PA Cabinet Minister Hanan
Ashrawi said: "It is not up to Israel to decide or define who is our
enemy. Hamas is not the enemy, it is part of the political fabric."
(Jerusalem Post, July 25, 1995)
Abbas Zakai of the Fatah
Central Committee said: "[Hamas's attacks] strengthen the Palestinian
position...It would be dangerous to stop these actions, because the accords
will crumble if there is nothing to make Israel go forward." (Al Hayat, April
17, 1995)
Arafat and PA Collaborate
with Hamas
Arafat publicly hugged and
kissed Hamas leaders, Abd el-Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Arafat has refused to
extradite Hamas killers to Israel, shut down Hamas training camps, outlaw
Hamas, or even publicly criticize Hamas by name.
Asked by a reporter about
Hamas, Arafat replied, "There is no confrontation with Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority." (United Press International, September 12, 1996)
PA Justice Minister Freih
Abu Medein said: "The PA and the [Hamas] opposition complement each
other...We regard Hamas and Islamic Jihad as national elements...The main
enemy, now and forever, is Israel." (An Nahar, April 11, 1995; Al Quds,
April 14, 1995)
PA Cabinet Minister Nabil
Sha'ath said: "We have a brotherly relationship with Hamas."
(Reuters, Oct. 28, 1994)
Hisham Abdel-Rizak, Fatah
leader in Gaza, said: "The dialogue with Hamas will not be broken off.
Hamas is part of the Palestinian people." (United Press International,
Oct. 28, 1994)
Arafat named a public square
in Jericho after Hamas bomb-maker Yiyha Ayyash, and publicly praising Ayyash as
"holy."
Arafat praised Hamas leader
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as "my brother Ahmed Yassin the warrior." (New
York Times, July 2, 1994)
Arafat Names Hamas Official
to His Cabinet
Arafat named Imad Falouji,
a Hamas activist from Gaza, as a Minister Without Portfolio, and chose Talal
Sidr, a Hamas activist from Hebron, as Minister of Youth. (Jerusalem Post,
Jan.26, 1997)
Arafat Permits "Hamas
Week" in PA-Controlled Nablus
In November 1997, Arafat
permitted the Hamas terrorist group to stage a week-long exhibition glorifying
terrorism and terrorists, at A-Najah University, in PA-controlled Nablus.
Arafat's official newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadidah, published a report praising
the exhibition in its edition of November 23, 1997:
The University's campus was
turned into a Palestinian city during the Intifada--dozens of veiled-face
individuals carrying [replica] submachine guns, five machine guns on the
shoulders, swords and other sharp objects which created the Intifada's unique
culture...At the entrance to the "Martyrs' Exhibit," enormous
pictures of holy martyrs who ascended to heaven were drawn...as well as a huge
drawing of a veiled-face youth, carrying a stone in order to throw it at an
occupation patrol... Marking the opening of the "Struggle Week"
activities, veiled-face youths blew up and burned an Israeli bus, symbolizing
the suicide bombings carried out by Iz a-Din al-Qassam's squads. In one corner,
there was large tent called "The Shahid's Tent," which presented the
clothes of holy martyrs who were killed during the Intifada... The body
[effigy] of a man who was executed during the Intifada for collaborating with
the occupation was hanging on the stem of a palm tree...
Hizballah
Party of God, Islamic Jihad
for the Liberation of Palestine.
Hizballah, or Party of God,
is a Lebanese Shi'ite group created in 1983 funded by the Islamic government in
Iran. Its goal is the creation of an independent Islamic nation in Lebanon and
the destruction of the State of Israel. It's activities have included mass
demonstrations, guerrilla attacks from camps in the Bekaa Valley and suicide
car bombings.
Their targets have included
Israeli civilians and military personnel, some of it's operations were the
infamous 1983 attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. killing hundreds of
Americans and countless Katuysha rocket attacks on Jewish settlements. In March
1992, an immense car bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. An identical device exploded there on July 18 outside a Jewish
community center killing nearly 100 civilians, and the bombing of a Panamanian
commuter flight that crashed near Colon on July 19. Hizballah remains one of
the most significant terrorist organizations operating today.
▲
DID THE JEW STEAL THE LAND?
Common Palestinian opinion:
"The Jews entered Palestine forcefully and stole the
land".
Response: At first one must
question:
when? Did the Jews
immigrate to Palestine carrying artillery or any weapons? Where were the Jews
when they acquired weapons? What front did they enter from?
▲
JEWISH LAND PURCHASES
Despite the growth in their
population, the Arabs continued to assert they were being displaced. The truth
is from the beginning of World War I, part of Palestine's land was owned by
absentee landlords who lived in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. About 80 percent of
the Palestinian Arabs were debtridden peasants, seminomads and Bedouins.
In 1946, the British
Mandate Government surveyed the land, ownership was as followes:
70% owned by the British
government, in trust for the Jewish National Homeland
transfered by international
law to Israel
8.6% owned by Jews
3.3% owned by resident
Arabs
16.5% owned by non-resident
Arabs
When Jews started to buy
Arab lands, Jews actually went out of their way to avoid purchasing land in
areas where Arabs might be displaced. They sought land that was largely
uncultivated, swampy, cheap and, most important, without tenants.
In 1920, Labor Zionist
leader David BenGurion expressed his concern about the Arab fellahin, whom he
viewed as "the most important asset of the native population.".
Ben Gurion said "under
no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by
them." He advocated helping liberate them from their oppressors.
"Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement," Ben Gurion added,
"should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price."
It was only after the Jews
had bought all of this available land that they began to purchase cultivated
land. Many Arabs were willing to sell because of the migration to coastal towns
and because they needed money to invest in the citrus industry.
When John Hope Simpson
arrived in Palestine in May 1930, he observed: "They [Jews] paid high
prices for the land, and in addition they paid to certain of the occupants of
those lands a considerable amount of money which they were not legally bound to
pay." .
In 1931, Lewis French
conducted a survey of landlessness and eventually offered new plots to any
Arabs who had been "dispossessed." British officials received more
than 3,000 applications, of which 80 percent were ruled invalid by the
Government's legal adviser because the applicants were not landless Arabs. This
left only about 600 landless Arabs, 100 of whom accepted the Government land
offer.
In April 1936, a new
outbreak of Arab attacks on Jews was instigated by a Syrian guerrilla named
Fawzi alQawukji, the commander of the Arab Liberation Army. By November, when
the British finally sent a new commission headed by Lord Peel to investigate,
89 Jews had been killed and more than 300 wounded.
The Peel Commission's
report found that Arab complaints about Jewish land acquisition were baseless.
It pointed out that "much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand
dunes or swamp and uncultivated when it was purchased....there was at the time
of the earlier sales little evidence that the owners possessed either the
resources or training needed to develop the land.".
Moreover, the Commission
found the shortage was "due less to the amount of land acquired by Jews
than to the increase in the Arab population." The report concluded that
the presence of Jews in Palestine, along with the work of the British
Administration, had resulted in higher wages, an improved standard of living
and ample employment opportunities.
In his memoirs,
Transjordan's King Abdullah wrote:
"It is made quite
clear to all, both by the map drawn up by the Simpson Commission and by another
compiled by the Peel Commission, that the Arabs are as prodigal in selling
their land as they are in useless wailing and weeping (author's
emphasis).".
Even at the height of the
Arab revolt in 1938, the British High Commissioner to Palestine believed the
Arab landowners were complaining about sales to Jews to drive up prices for
lands they wished to sell. Many Arab landowners had been so terrorized by Arab
rebels they decided to leave Palestine and sell their property to the Jews.
The Jews were paying
exorbitant prices to wealthy landowners for small tracts of arid land. "In
1944, Jews paid between $1,000 and $1,100 per acre in Palestine, mostly for
arid or semiarid land; in the same year, rich black soil in Iowa was selling
for about $110 per acre.".
By 1947, Jewish holdings in
Palestine amounted to about 463,000 acres. Approximately 45,000 of these acres
were acquired from the Mandatory Government; 30,000 were bought from various
churches and 387,500 were purchased from Arabs. Analyses of land purchases from
1880 to 1948 show that 73 percent of Jewish plots were purchased from large
landowners, not poor fellahin. Those who sold land included the mayors of Gaza,
Jerusalem and Jaffa.
As'ad elShuqeiri, a Muslim
religious scholar and father of PLO chairman Ahmed Shuqeiri, took Jewish money
for his land. Even King Abdullah leased land to the Jews. In fact, many leaders
of the Arab nationalist movement, including members of the Muslim Supreme
Council, sold land to Jews. The weekly Fasl al-Maqal, owned by Arab-Israeli
parliament deputy Azmi Beshara and based in the predominantly Arab city of
Nazareth in north Israel, ran a list of 54 leading Palestinians who sold land
to Jews from 1918-1945.
The paper reported Thursday
that Palestinian nationalist leaders,
Including the grandfather
of the PLO's current top official in Jerusalem, sold land to Jews in the years
before Israel's founding.
The paper ran a story
titled "Our Fathers On The Take," takes the issue back to the era of
the British mandate before Israel's founding in 1948, when the Zionist movement
was seeking land in Palestine to create a Jewish state.
The paper reports that some
of those highest up in the Palestinian
nationalist movement which
opposed the Jewish state were at the same
time selling land to the
Jewish Agency, the body spearheading the Zionist drive. The weekly's
editor-in-chief, Awad Abdel Fatah reports that the names came from an official
document dating back to the British mandate in Palestine, which the paper
received from official sources in Jordan. He said, "We published only a
partial list from the document, showing the role of the Palestinian leadership
in the flow of lands to the Jewish Agency before the disaster of 1948," he
said.
The names are embarrassing
to the PA as one is a relative of Yasir
Arafat and he is one of the
most prominent names on the list. His name is Mohammed Taher al-Husseni,
father of al-Hajj Amin al-Husseni, the mufti of Jerusalem and supreme head of
the Palestinian nationalist movement. Another was Kazem al-Husseni,
grandfather on the mother's side of Faisal Husseni, the top PLO official in
Jerusalem. Kazem sold lands in Jerusalem, where he was mayor from 1918-1920.
The list includes five other members of the Husseni family, one of the most
prominent clans in pre-1948 Palestine and today.
Other members of leading
Palestinian families also showed up on the
list, as did members of the
High Arab Committee, the High Islamic Council and the Arab Executive Committee,
the main bodies which led the nascent Palestinian nationalist movement against
Zionism. Mussa al-Alami, who headed the Palestinian delegation to the London
Conference of 1939 convened to discuss the future of mandate Palestine, sold 90
hectares (222 acres) to Jews in Bisan, now the north Israeli city of Beit
Shean, according to the list.
Ragheb al-Nashashibi, mayor
of Jerusalem from 1920-1934 and head of the National Defense Party, sold over
120 hectares (296 acres) of land in Jaffa, outside Tel Aviv. Nashashibi also
sold land in east Jerusalem upon which Hebrew University was later built.
Yaakub al-Ghussein, who headed
the Arab Fund created to gather money to support the Palestinian cause, sold
land to Jews in Jaffa and what is now the Gaza Strip for 4,000 Palestinian
pounds, equivalent to British pound sterling at that era. And the other elite
Muslim and Christian families of Palestine, including the Abdel Hadi, Bseiso,
and Fahum clans, were represented on the list.
The Jews before the wars
were already living as peasants, bought lands, cultivated them after years of
neglect. The Jews restored the land and made it what it is today having an
economy ten times the size of that of Egypt, Jordan and Syria combined, while
the Arabs have been plotting wars against her since the 1920s and instead of
wiping out every Jew in the area resulted in the displacement of almost 1/2 the
Palestinians in 1948.
The Arab opposition to an
Israeli state began after the Balfour Declaration 1917, which supported the
idea of a Jewish national homeland. In the 1920s there were anti-Zionist riots
in Palestine, then governed by the UK under a League of Nations mandate.
In 1936 an Arab revolt led
to a British royal commission that recommended partition approved by the United
Nations in 1947, but rejected by the Arabs.
When it became clear that
the British intended to leave by May 15, leaders of the Yishuv decided to
implement that part of the partition plan calling for establishment of a Jewish
state.
In Tel Aviv on May 14 the
Provisional State Council, formerly the National Council, "representing
the Jewish people in Palestine and the World Zionist Movement, proclaimed the
establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Medinat Israel
(the State of Israel) ...
On May 15 the armies of
Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab
guerrillas who had been fighting Jewish forces since November 1947.
The civil war now became an
international conflict, the first Arab-Israeli War, called the war of
independence by Israel. The Arabs failed to prevent establishment of a Jewish
state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between
Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The frontiers defined in the
armistice agreements remained until they were altered by Israel's conquests
during the Six-Day War in 1967.
The wars that were intended
to annihilate the Jews ended up in Israel's victory. For Arabs to bring up
atrocities, murders, incidents of violence by the Israelis as a result of
trying to annihilate her can be expected, especially when 5 wars was waged on
Israel, and hundreds of terror attacks intended to destroy every Jew in Israel.
Wars throughout history has always had repercussions and Arabs are not immune from
the bad taste of their own medicine.
Mr. Assad Syria's dictator
vowed at the start of the 1967 war: "Our forces are now entirely ready...
to initiate the act of liberation itself and to explode the Zionist presence in
the Arab homeland... The time has come to enter into a battle of
annihilation." President Nasser of Egypt declared, "Our basic goal is
the destruction of Israel". (Laqueur, op. cit., pp. 175-185).
Such statements has no
effect on changing the hearts of the Arab and Muslim masses who know that
Muhammad Islam's prophet annihilated the Jews from Saudi Arabia, and the
unsophisticated Westerners mind and heart has been seduced to believe a lie,
that the Arabs and Muslims worldwide have a great desire for peace, the
"final solution" evil saga will continue as planed by Satan.
Westerners forget who supported Hitler in World War II, the Soviet Union during
the Cold War and Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, instead they rally behind
Arafat who still refuses to change the PLO Charter calling for the destruction
of Israel.
▲
WHO TRULY SCATTERED THE PALESTINIANS
Abu Mazen wrote in an
article entitled "Madha `Alamna wa-Madha Yajib An Na`mal" [What We
Have Learned and What We Should Do], published in "Falastin
eth-Thawra" [Revolutionary Palestine], the official journal of the PLO,
Beirut, March 1976, "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the
Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but instead, they abandoned them, forced
them to emigrate and to leave their homeland...The Arab States succeeded in
scattering the Palestinian people."
Khaled al-`Azm, who served
as Prime Minister of Syria in 1948 and 1949, wrote in his memoirs (published in
Beirut, 1973), that among the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948 was
"the call by the Arab Governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to
evacuate it and to leave for the bordering Arab countries, after having sown
terror among them...Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the
refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to
leave...We have brought destruction upon a million Arab refugees, by calling
upon them and pleading with them to leave their land, their homes, their work
and business..." (Part 1, pp. 386-387).
Harry C. Stebbens, who was
in an official position in the British Mandatory Government in Palestine in
1947-48, wrote in the London Evening Standard (Friday, 10 January, 1969):
"Long before the end
of the British mandate, between January and April, 48, practically all my Arab
Palestinian staff of some 200 men and women and all of the 1800 labor force had
left Haifa in spite of every possible effort to assure them of their safety if
they stayed. They all left for one or more of the following reasons:
"1. The Arab terrorism
engendered by the November, 1947, U.N. partition resolution frightened them to
death of their imaginative souls and they feared Jewish retaliation.
"2. Propagandists
promised a blood bath as soon as the mandate ended in
which the street of all the
cities would run with blood.
"3. The promised
invasion by the foreign Arab armies (which started on May 14, 1948, with the
Arab Legion massacre of some 200 Jewish settlers at Kfar Etzion) was preceded
by extensive broadcasts from Cairo, Damascus, Amman, and Beirut to the effect
that any Arabs who stayed would be hanged as collaborators with the Jews.
It is true that the
massacre of Deir Yassin (always quoted by the Arabs) caused some of the
refugees. But the massacre of Kfar Etzion, the massacre of the hospital convoy
which killed 48 Jewish doctors and nurses, the continued shelling and blasting
of Jewish settlement for more than 20 years, has not caused one single Israeli
to move away. They sit tight and if necessary in their shelters while across
the river, where the shooting comes from, the towns and villages are deserted,
last year's crops still rot on the trees and the refugees move still further
away from any trouble.
Jamal Husseini, in charge
of the Palestine Higher Committee, told the Security Council on 23 April 1948,
"we have never concealed the fact that we began the fighting."
On 6 September 1949, the
Beirut Telegraph carried an interview with Mr. Emile Ghoury, Secretary of the
Palestine Higher Committee, in which he said: "The fact that there are
these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab States in
opposing partition and the Jewish State."
The Jordan daily Falastin
wrote on 19 February 1949: "The Arab States which had encouraged the
Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way
of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promises to help these
refugees."
As late as 12 October 1963,
the Cairo daily Akhbar el-Yom, recalled: "15 May 1948 arrived...on that
very day the Mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the
country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their
stead..."
A British police report to
Jerusalem Headquarters on 26 April 1948 attested:
"Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade
the Arab population to
stay and carry on with
their normal lives..."
In Haifa, on 27 April 1948,
the Arab National Committee refused to sign a truce, reporting in a memorandum
to the Arab League Governments: "when the delegation entered the
conference room it proudly refused to sign the truce and asked that the
evacuation of the Arab population and their transfer to neighboring Arab
countries be facilitated...The military and civil authorities and the Jewish
representatives expressed their profound regret. The mayor of Haifa (Mr.
Shabtai Levi) adjourned the meeting with a passionate appeal to the Arab
population to reconsider its decision..."
"The first group of
our fifth columnists consists of those who abandon their houses and business
and go to live elsewhere... At the first sign of trouble they take to their
heels to escape sharing the burden of struggle." (Editorial, Ash Sha'ab,
January 30 1948 (Haifa))
"The Arab streets are
curiously deserted and, evidently following the poor example of the more
moneyed class there has been an exodus from Jerusalem too, though not to the
same extent as in Jaffa and Haifa." (London Times, May 5 1948).
"The refugees were
confident that their absence would not last long, and that they would return
within a week or two. Their leaders had promised them that the Arab Armies
would crush the "Zionist gangs" very quickly and that there was no
need for panic or fear of a long
exile." (Msgnr. George
Hakim (Greek Catholic bishop), as quoted in Sada al Janub, August 16 1948
(Beirut)).
"Of the 62,000 Arabs
who formerly lived in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various
factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little
doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the
air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit... It was clearly
intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection
would be regarded as renegades." (The Economist, October 2 1948 (London))
All the above were written
while the exodus of refugees-to-be was still
taking place. Let us now
turn to statements made after the fact:
"The Arab States
encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be
out of the way of the Arab invasion armies." (Editorial, Falastin,
February 19, 1949 (Amman)).
"It must not be
forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees' flight from
their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem." (Broadcast by the Near East
Arabic Broadcasting Station on April 3 1949 (Cyprus))
"The Arab exodus,
initially at least, was encouraged by many Arab leaders, such as Haj Amin el
Husseni, the exiled pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, and by the Arab Higher
Committee for Palestine. They viewed the first wave of Arab setbacks as merely
transitory. Let the Palestine Arabs flee into neighboring countries. It would
serve to arouse the other Arab peoples to greater effort, and when the Arab
invasion struck, the Palestinians could return to their homes and be
compensated with the property of Jews driven into the sea." (Kenneth Bilby
(an American journalist, covering the area before and
during the war), in his
book 'New Star in the Near East', pp. 30-31
(New York 1950))
"We will smash the
country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The
Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting
has died down." (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, as quoted by Nimr el Hawari
(the former Commander of the Palestine Arab Youth Organization) in his book
'Sir Am Nakbah' ("The Secret Behind the Disaster"), 1952 (Nazareth))
"This wholesale exodus
was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boasting of an
unrealistic Arab press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab
leaders that it could be only a matter of some weeks before the Jews were
defeated by the armies of the Arab States and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to
re-enter and retake possession of their country." (Edward Atiyah
(Secretary of the Arab League Office in London), as quoted in 'The Arabs', p.
183 (London 1955)
"I do not want to
impugn anybody but only to help the refugees. The fact that there are these
refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab States in opposing
partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed upon this policy
unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." (Emil
Ghoury (Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee), as quoted in the Daily
Telegraph, September 6 1948 (Beirut))
"The Secretary General
of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation
of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade... He
pointed out that they were already on the frontiers and that all the millions
the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it
would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean... Brotherly
advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes, and
property and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns
of the invading Arab armies mow them down." (Habib Issa, in the daily
US-published Lebanese newspaper Al Hoda, June 8 1951 (New York))
"The Arab governments
told us: get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get
in." -- (a refugee, from the Jordanian daily newspaper Ad Difaa, September
6 1954)
▲
JEWISH TERRORISM?
Common Palestinian opinion:
"The Jews conducted
massacres of Qana, Sabra, and Shatella and other."
▲
BLAMED NO MATTER WHAT
Israel, the very nation
mentioned more then any in the Bible, the very people that are the heart and
means to carry the message and the Messiah, must be eliminated, destroyed, and
replaced. Godly verses must be found to justify such "noble goals",
and Israel must be exposed for every deed they do in order to justify the
means. For that, we must put on trial the Jews whenever their is a death, a
war, or even a housing project like Har Homa near Jerusalem. If they kill, we
must ignore the motive, and only see the killing, if one of them in anger goes
on a shooting rampage, we must accuse the whole nation, if they get fed up with
terrorism and close the roads, we will accuse them of imprisoning the masses,
and if they occupy their attackers, they are accused of tyranny, dictatorship,
and given that status of an evil occupier. No matter what they do, they will be
labeled only on their actions, but never the actions of their accusers.
Then there is another view,
a view that Israel in order to be accepted needs to be sinless, and almost
every Jew needs to be the pure Messiah, with no blemish. Their government must
be perfect, we must not find a single flaw with every Jewish citezen a perfect
example, they must never have an extremist group, they must never have any sick
mad man with a happy trigger.
From the few groups in
Israel we find an angry Rabbi Yaacov Perrin who says: "One million Arabs
are not worth a Jewish fingernail" (NY Daily News, Feb. 28, 1994,
p.6).", and when such people say such things we find every anti-Israel
website post it.
Even Human Rights Watch
groups join the masses of acusers, in one report they conclude: "the
government of Israel shares blame for the state of human rights in the Gaza
Strip and Jericho. Israel's still-considerable control over the lives of
Palestinians in these areas entails significant obligations that Israel has
failed to fulfill ... Since August, the Palestinian Authority has arrested
hundreds of members of the political opposition with little semblance of due
process: arrest warrants are the exception rather than the rule, and suspects
have been held without charge for several days or longer without being brought
before a judge." (Human Rights Watch, New York, February 12, 1995).
What Israel in reality did
wrong was to put Arafat back in rule, but no matter what Israel is blamed for
Arafat's doings.
If a flowchart of abuses
were to be drawn, the arrows will always be pointing to Israel regardless if it
was the Palestinian Authority that does it. The Sabra and Shatella Massacre in
Lebanon was also blamed on Israel even thought it was carried out by the
Lebanese and blamed on the Jew. You would rarely read condemnation for Arabs
killing Arabs, even though Arabs killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs.
In summary of all the years
of research, life, and experience I had on Israel being on both sides
anti-Israel then pro-Israel, people and governments, to them no matter what
Israel does, good or bad, Israel simply must be accused, found guilty, then
replaced. To millions, Israel is a cancer, city rats, with one solution left.
Through the ages many "final" solutions were made, yet the Jew and
even Israel as a country, still survives against all odds. Yet the factories
for final solutions still draw their plans as they did in the past.
In September 1999, an
Israeli court convicted Uri Amit of belonging to and supporting a terrorist
organization. The ruling declared that the Noar Meir youth group, named after
Kach founder Meir Kahane, is affiliated in fact and not just in name with the
Kach organization. Specifically, Uri Amit was found to have distributed fliers
that lauded the murder of Arabs and praised the assassination of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin. Another flyer urged people to contribute to the "Baruch
Goldstein Fund" to honor the settler who massacred 29 Muslim worshipers in
Hebron in 1994. According to Judge Hanoch Feder, "It appears that what
characterizes Kahane Chai and Noar Meir is violence as an ideology, at times as
a religious commandment.".
In July 1999, three Israeli
soldiers were expelled from the Israeli army for affiliating or sympathizing
with the Kach and Kahane Chai organizations.
The Institute points out
that these groups were feared to be plotting the assassination of high-level
Israeli politicians in the summer of 1998 following the murder of Jewish
settlers in Hebron.
Ami Ayalon, head of
Israel's General Security Service, indicated his concern by dissuading
politicians from participating in public events given reports that radical
elements may have tried to kill key figures in order to stop the peace process.
Based on certain data collected by Israel's security services, a meeting
convened by then-Prime Minister Netanyahu on August 28, 1998 determined that
special precautions were needed to preempt assassination attempts on the Prime
Minister, President Ezer Weizman, and then-Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai,
among others.
On October 24, 1993, Kach
and Kahane Chai set off two small bombs near the French embassy in Tel Aviv,
saying the attack was carried out to protest PLO leader Yasir Arafat's visit to
France and agreements he signed there.
Certain Jewish terrorest
attacks like Yehida , the Khisas, Qazaza, and few others, are a spec when
compared with hundreds of terrorest attacks by Arabs against Israelis including
several wars of intended annihilation. No one argues that a Jewish terrorest
killed 60 in Hebron's Abrahamic Mosque, Arabs need to keep in mind that this
criminal act was condemned by Israelis and by the Israeli Government as well.
One cannot blame a nation for a few outraged individuals who carry out acts of
violence against Palestinians. The World has yet to hear the Arab nations
condemn the terror carried on on the Jews from time immomorial by Muslim Arabs
throughout the centuries.
Yet the bad treatment of
Christians and Jews by muslims is suppressed in today's modern history and
media as well. A book called "The Fall of Christianity" by Bat Peor
showes hundreds of detailed well researched pages on the persecution done by
Islam throughout history is an eye opener. To call the accidental death toll
during Israeli bombings on Lebanon as "massacars", a term generally
given to the rounding up of civilians and shooting them indiscriminately. No
one can deny that 70 people died in Qana as Israel admitted that it was a
mistake while trying to bomb terrorist areas, and while hundreds of websites
condemning the incident, there are hardly any that talks of the hundreds of
terrorist attacks that could really use the classification of
"massacre".
The question should be, why
Hizbullah and the rest of the Arab terrorest bases in Lebanon throughout their
history, have intentionally based there camps in the middle of civilian
populations? The we hear the outcry by the masses sceaming massacars?
Similar incidents as Qana
happened during the Gulf War, yet the wolrd blamed Saddam Hussein not America
for the outcome.
Whatever happened to all
the Ketusha rockets that landed on targets like Keriat Shmona during many
inceidents killing much more civilians then Qana? These targets were hit in the
intention of killing civilians in order to terorrize the Jewish population.
While the perpetrators admit their intention to kill civillians and none of
these rockets were intended to hit Israeli armed facilities.
Why would the Arab masses
keep refugee camps while Israelis always house there immigrants?
Why is the Al-Ibrahimi
Mosque Massacre by some Jewish maniac blamed on every Jew in Israel? Why must a
whole nation take the blame of a single mad man? Especially when similar
incidents carried out by Arabs receive praises by the Arab masses? Arafat even
names a street after a muderer, and every terorrest who killed Israelis and
Americans are free on Palestinian streets.
Would someone blame all Americans
if some nutt case open automatic fire on a McDonalds? This always happens in
almost every country.
Where are all the erected
websites that speak about the Hebron Massacre of Jews? Yet one push of the
button on a Yahoo search on the Hebron Massacre of Jews by the Arabs and you
get hundreds of issues on the Hebron Massacres of Palestinians on the Ibrahimi
Mosque. Why? And that massacre was not conducted by one nutt case, but by the
Arab masses of Hebron, attacking, looting, raping, and indiscriminate killing
of every Jew in Hebron. Once the table is turned around, the image is quite
different.
Sabra and Shatila, is
another massacre blamed on the Jews while little is said about the Lebaneese
Kataeb and Ahrar who carried it out. The massacre was a result of the Civil War
in Lebanon between Lebaneese and Palestinians where Lebaneese militia rounded
up Palestinian refugees and indiscrimenatley killed them. Since the Jews did
not come to the rescue of these Palestinians, the Jew must take the blame.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque incident
was another tragedy started by Arab rioters throwing heaps of stones down on
the Jewish worshipers on the Wailing Wall, the result was the death of about 20
Palestinians as the Israeli Police opened fire on the rioters.
These tregedies have always
been a result of hate and war.
▲
DAYR YASEEN – A HISTORY OF A LIE
Common Palestinian's
opinion:
"Israel killed 250 people at Dayr Yassin in cold
blood - of them 25 pregnant women were bayoneted in the abdomen while still
alive and 52 children were maimed under the eyes of their own mothers, and they
were slain and their heads cut off."
A Palestinian activist
opinion:
"254 Arabs died at
Deir Yassin." (Daniel McGowan of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, NY)
"an estimated 100-250
Arab villagers were slaughtered." (Daniel McGowan, Press release, March
22, 1998).
"over 100 Palestinian
men, women and children were killed." (Daniel McGowan, Press release,
March 25, 1998).
While the numbers decline,
Beir Zeit, a Palestinian University who interviewed every Arab survivor
admitted that the number was 110. The story has been exaggerated and
conflicting testimonies cloud the whole story, but the best study on this issue
is "The history of the 1948 war" by Professor Uri Milstein, one of
Israel's most distinguished military historians, it's meticulous, very detailed
and accurate.
Also, in 1952 a hearing was
conducted in Israel which Israeli judges heard eyewitness testimony from
participants in the events at Deir Yassin and issued a ruling that has
important implications for understanding what happened in that battle. The
question that should be asked is, how often did the Arabs ever issue any
ruling, any court, any hearing for any of the countless massacars of Jews in
any Arab country?
Long before Dayr Yassin,
Arab and Jewish armies were already battling. An "Arab Liberation
Army," sponsored by the Arab League and manned by volunteers from various
Arab countries has always attacked civilian Jewish communities in Palestine
prior to 1948. My own father has witnessed Arab villagers along with Arab
soldiers raid Jewish Communities. Even the religious leader Haj Al-Ameen
El-Husseni who collaborated with Hitler and had SS trained graduates to fight
against these Jewish communities, some of which were found among the corpse of
dead Palestinian fighters at Dayr Yasin with SS identifications.
The facts are, every Arab
village in Israel participated in attacking Jewish settlements in order to
destroy the Jews. The Arab attackers faced consequences of there actions, raids
on civilians and wars will always have repercussions.
Deir Yassin was a
heavily-armed nest of terrorists who in 1947-1948 had been attacking nearby
Jewish neighborhoods and traffic on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
Mordechai Ra'anan, leader
of the Jewish soldiers who fought in Deir Yassin invented the number '254' as a
deliberate exaggeration in order to undermine the morale of the Arab forces and
no body count was conducted to tally the dead.
Despite Ra'anan's
admission, the figure 254 was circulated by Palestinian Arab leader Hussein
Khalidi which was the basis for a widely re-printed article in the New York
Times which was refered to in the past generations.
Tally of Jewish losses
revealed 42 Israeli wounded and 6 dead out of an attacking force of 132
soldiers. One of the commanders of the Jewish force, Ben Zion Cohen, describes
"[The Arabs were] shooting from every house".
While the Jewish attackers
with loud speakers warned in advance to 'Lay down your arms! Run for your
lives" the Arabs fired at the vehicle and the battle erupted.
Also, claims of rape and
other atrocities were fabricated to incite Arab violence against Israel. Arab
eyewitnesses interviewed in a PBS documentary reveal that they were told by Dr.
Hussein Khalidi, a prominent Palestinian Arab leader, to fabricate claims of
atrocities at Deir Yassin in order to encourage Arab regimes to invade the
Jewish state-to-be.
Deir Yassin resident Abu
Mahmoud recalls: "We gathered in Jerusalem at the Hebron Gate. We checked
who was missing, and who had survived. Then the Pal leaders arrived, including
Dr. Khalidi."
Hazem Nusseibeh, an editor
of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948 and a member of one
of Jerusalem's most prominent Arab families admited that he was told by Hussein
Khalidi the originator of the massacre story to fabricate claims of atrocities
in order to encourage Arab regimes to invade the Jewish state-to-be.
According to a Jerusalem
Report, Nusseibeh "describes an encounter at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's
Old City with Deir Yassin survivors and Palestinian leaders, including Hussein
Khalidi... 'I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story,' recalled
Nusseibeh. 'He said, "We must make the most of this." So we wrote a
press release stating that at Deir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant
women were raped. All sorts of atrocities.'"
Abu Mahmud a survivor
declared: "'We said, "There was no rape." [Khalidi] said,
"We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate
Palestine from the Jews.'"
The PBS narrator then says:
"Arab radio stations passed on the false reports, ignoring the protests of
the witnesses."
Lately, a prominent
syndicated columnist from New York called the "massacre" claims as
"one of the great hoaxes of the 20th century."
Syndicated columnist famous
reporter Sid Zion, whose column originates in the New York Daily News wrote on
March 23, 1998:
"Deir Yassin has ever
since been the rallying call for the Arabs and the enemies of Israel and of the
Jewish people. Arafat compares it to Auschwitz. It is one of the great hoaxes
of the 20th century, comparable to the libel that Jews drank Christian
blood...The fight for Deir Yassin was part of the war and a necessary battle
for Jewish survival. The Irgun, under Menachem Begin, warned the Arabs and
asked them to evacuate their women and children. Hundreds left, but hundreds
stayed. A pitched battle ensued, and when the smoke cleared, 120 Arabs were
killed, 40 Jews were seriously injured and four Jews were dead...[The
'massacre' claim] has long since been discredited by the Israeli government and
every other historical study. But like all libels, it stands off truth and
proof."
In conclusions the
Palestinian Arabs left voluntarily, overreacting to their own leaders'
fabricated atrocity reports. They were not expelled, as Arab propagandists
claim.
There is always abuses and
losses when there is a war, but as far as what I witnessed in the 6 days war
and afterwards, the Jews did no harm to us. The Jews did no massacres on the
West Bank and in general behaved righteously, I know what I have seen. It is
our hate to the Jewish presence that fueled wars and attacks.
▲
DIVIDING ISRAEL - THEOLOGICAL OR POLITICAL ISSUE?
A common Palestinian
theological argument:
"Palestine is for the
Arabs, Jesus was Palestinian, so Palestine belongs to us".
"The Bible does not
mention an exclusive Jewish state".
Let's look at the issue in
reverse perspective, for the End Times Clear verses of scripture state:
"For behold, in those
days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I
will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My
heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also
divided up My land.". (Joel 3)
The end of Israel's mock
trials are presented in these clear predictions. God the just and great judge
does not heed to the majority, but comes to save a very small minority. The
focus on a piece of land a fraction of a percent of all lands in this glob, and
the strangest part is that it speaks of God coming to judge the world over this
small people, and over this tiny piece of real estate. Strange indeed, to the
point that we dismiss them and re-interpret them. How is it that when this
judgment is made, Israel will be in her land? Why is it that much material is
written dismissing Bible Prophecy of Israel as being fulfilled already way in
the past before Jesus came? Could it be that this the only way to cover these
prophecies by shuffling the timeline of these events?
Also in Joel 3, the
"In those days" obviously refers to the verses before it in chapter
2:30 of Joel:
"And I will shew
wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke"
to be judgment day were all havoc breaks loose. How is Israel there at that
time way in the future? There must be a regathering and a division of land
prior to judgment day, is there any other interpretation?
▲
DIVIDING ISRAEL - WHAT THE 'NATIONS' ARE DOING
The division is taking
place, all the world are in support of the division and all United Nations are
standing against Israel pressuring her to give up Judea. Joel's declaration of
judgment to the nations is on it's way. The Bible suggests strongly that we
don't be found guilty of hating Israel or Jews, or contributing to the division
of Israel. To simply interpret this verse without prejudice is: to hate Jews is
to hate God, and to stand against Israel is to be on the side of Anti-Christ.
Anyone who would question Joel's prophecy must answer to the amazing accuracy
of the portions that were fulfilled, and in light of countless other verses by
other prophets.
Despite all the warnings,
the nations (United Nations) are carrying out the evil plan as predicted.
Morris B. Abram, Chairman
of the United Nations Watch writes:
"Emergency Special
Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly are rare. No such session has
ever been convened with respect to the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the
Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the
slaughters in Rwanda, the disappearances in Zaire or the horrors of Bosnia. In
fact, during the last 15 years they have been called only to condemn
Israel.".
In April 1997's
"emergency special session" of the United Nations General Assembly,
which condemned Israel's construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in
Jerusalem, has raised a number of questions about the world body's function and
bias.
The session was called
under the "Uniting for peace" resolution adopted by the General
Assembly in 1950, a formula enabling members "to act in a case where there
appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of
aggression". The formula has only been used 10 times since 1950 where 93
member states felt that building apartments in Jerusalem could be seen as a
breech of the Peace Accord.
While Israel's construction
of homes in Jerusalem is not a violation of the Oslo Accords since no changing
in status of territory has been broken. In light of this, it needs to be noted
that Palestinian Authority receives monetary support from Israel. The question
should be as to why the United Nations is so alarmed over a housing unit
project when tens of thousands of refugees in central Africa faced death by starvation
or disease as civil war raged in Zaire, hundreds of Algerians, including women
and children, were being butchered by Islamists, enslavement of Christians in
the Sudan continued, a German court implicated the Iranian regime in sponsoring
terrorism abroad, new reports emerged of chemical weapons manufacture by
several Mid-east states, the Irish Republican Army stepped up its bomb-threat
campaign, Albanian anarchy persisted, the civil war and accompanying refugee
crisis reached new proportions in Afghanistan, and the separatist struggle in
China's Xinjiang province became ever more violent?
THE General Assembly
resolution demanded the "immediate and full cessation" of
construction at Har Homa, Jerusalem and urged all states to stop "all
forms of assistance and support for illegal Israeli activities", notably
in building settlements in disputed areas. It requested UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan to report back within two months on whether Israel has stopped the
work in Jerusalem.
One hundred and thirty-four
nations supported the resolution, three opposed it - Israel, the US, and the
tiny Pacific island federation of Micronesia while 11 abstained - Germany,
Australia, Canada, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Marshall Islands, Norway,
Romania, Rwanda and Uruguay.
All this despite the fact
that Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority has financed the illegal construction
of thousands of Arab homes in the Old City section of Jerusalem and that
"Faisal Husseni, Arafat's cabinet ministers, announced that Saudi Arabia has
donated $19-million "to build 600 Arab homes in Jerusalem and strengthen
their hold over parts of the city." (Jerusalem Post, June 24, 1997).
Last year, Aharon Domb, the
Secretary General of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and
Gaza, released photographs, video surveillance, and maps showing during
June-December 1996, Palestinian Arabs had built more than 1,000 illegal
buildings in "Area C," which is the area that is under Israeli
control in the administered territories. (Ha'aretz, Jan. 7, 1997)
The Bible is very clear on
this issue, "I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the
peoples round about; it will be against Judah, also in the siege against
Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:2).
Jerusalem is the only city
in the world that could cause an uproar over a housing project, yet as the
Bible predicted today it is indeed a burdensome stone to the world.
"On that day I will
make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming
torch among sheaves; and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the
peoples round about, while Jerusalem shall still be inhabited in its place, in
Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:6).
Yet Jerusalem shall remain
inhabited !
▲
▲
MARTIN LUTHER, THE X CATHOLIC MONK
The
dilemma that the reformation only began after Martin Luther gives a tainted
picture that all the time before him, Christendom which was all Catholic has
always persecuting the Jews.
While
this false assumption is wrong, even Luther himself admitted that he was not
the first who tried to reform the Church: "We are not the first to declare
the papacy to be the kingdom of Antichrist, since for many years before us so
many and so great men...have undertaken to express the same thing so
clearly....".
Martin
Luther who unfortunately inherited many false Replacement Theology ideas taught
by the Catholic Church was not the first Christian who tried to reform
Catholicism. Many centuries before Luther a movement among priests and monks
calling for a return to the entire Bible(both Jewish Old Testament and Jewish
New Testament) began many centuries before Luther. In reality the first
reformer was the Priscillian Bishop of Avila who was falsely accused of
witchcraft by a Synod in Bordeaux, France in A.D. 384. The false charges can
easily be refuted by seven of his recently discovered writings in the
University of Germany’s Wurzburg library.
Priscillian
and six others were beheaded at Trier in 385 and many martyrdoms followed.
These persecutions went all the way to the late 1300s when John Wycliff who was
given the title "morning star of the Reformation," championed the
authority of the Scriptures, translated and published them in English and
preached and wrote against the evils of the popes and transubstantiation.
Influenced by Wycliff was Jan Hus, a fervent Catholic priest and rector of
Prague University. He was later excommunicated in 1410, and burned at the stake
as a "heretic" in 1415.
Despite Luther’s writings, it is not
fair to blame all the divisions of Christendom of persecuting the Jews. Many
throughout the centuries who fought the evils of the Catholic Church tried to
stop the killings and denounce the Catholic Church. During the tenth century, a
council at Rheims by the Bishop of Orleans called the Pope "The
Antichrist". In the eleventh century Rome was denounced as "the See
of Satan" by Berenger of Tours. The Waldensians identified the Pope as
Antichrist in an 1100 treatise titled "The Noble Lesson." In 1206 an
Albigensian conference indicted the Vatican as the woman "drunk with the
blood of the martyrs".
Many also blame
Anti-Semitism on Martin Luther's writing against the Jews. While it is true
that Martin Luther at the last few years of his life changed his position on
the Jews and wrote evil essays regarding the Jews. At the beginning of his
career, Luther was apparently sympathetic to Jewish resistance to the Catholic
Church:
"The Jews are
blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the
Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you
become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a
Jew."
In 1523 A.D Martin Luther
wrote "Jesus Christ was born a Jew" he makes reference to the origins
of Christianity, later the aging reformer did not see this 'return to the right
path' during the following years, he then turned bitter. Strong polemic works
emerged at this point, like The Jews and their Lies.
A further reason for
Luther's anti-Semitic position, other than his disappointment with the Jews for
not accepting his "true belief", could be that in many respects his
education was still based on the Replacement Theology which was prevalent in
the Catholic Church taught by Augustine. Luther who was an Augustinian wrote
many anti-Semitic statements which were often used to accuse non-Catholic
Christians of persecuting the Jews.
On his infamous writing
"On the Jews and their Lies" of 1543, among Luther's vile rantings
against Jews were texts like the following excerpts:
"Their breath stinks
for the gold and silver of the heathen; since no people under the sun always
have been, still are, and always will remain more avaricious than they, as can
be noticed in their cursed usury. Therefore know, my dear Christians, that next
to the Devil, you have no more bitter, more poisonous, more vehement and enemy
than a real Jew who earnestly desires to be a Jew...Do not their Talmud and
rabbis write that it is no sin to kill if a Jew kills a heathen, but it is a
sin if he kills a brother in Israel? It is no sin if he does not keep his oath
to a heathen. Therefore, to steal and rob - as they do with their moneylending
- from a heathen,
is a divine service...Now
what are we going to do with these rejected, condemned Jewish
people?...(Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, 1543).
"set fire to their
synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn...
I advise that their houses be razed and destroyed... I advise that all their
prayer books... in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are
taught, be taken from them... that their rabbis be forbidden to teach
henceforth on pain of
loss of life and limb...
that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews... that
all their treasure of silver and gold be taken from them... But if the
authorities are reluctant to use force and restrain the Jews' devilish wantonness,
the latter should, as we said, be expelled from their country and be told to
return to ... Jerusalem where they may lie, curse, blaspheme, defame, murder,
steal, rob, practice usury, mock, and indulge in all those infamous
abominations which they practice among us, and leave ... our Lord the Messiah,
our faith, and our church undefiled and uncontaminated with their devilish
tyranny and malice." (Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, 1543).
▲
THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS BY "CHRISTENDOM"
306 AD. Decrees by the
early Catholic Church (partial list) Synod of Elvira prohibited intermarriage
and sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews, and prohibited them from
eating together. During the 4th and 5th centuries synagogues were burned by
Catholics and the first synagogue was destroyed as ordered by Catholic bishop
Innocentius of Dertona in Northern Italy.
388 A.D. The first
synagogue known to have been burned down was near the river Euphrat, on command
of the bishop of Kallinikon.
527-564 A.D, the Justinian
Code was an edict of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian). A section of the code
negated civil rights for Jews. Once the code was enforced, Jews in the Empire
could not build synagogues, read the Bible in Hebrew, gather in public places,
celebrate Passover before Easter, or give evidence in a judicial case in which
a Christian was a party.
533-541 A.D, Councils of
Orleans prohibited marriages between Christians and Jews, forbade the
conversion to Judaism by Christians, and banned contact with Jews the forbidding
of the reading of the Torah exclusively in Hebrew. (see Parkes, 251ff, 392).
553 – 545 A.D. Confiscation
of Jewish property and the prohibition of the sale of
Christian property to Jews.
692 A.D. Trulanic Syno
prohibited Christians from being treated by Jewish doctors.
694 A.D. Council of Toledo,
Jews were enslaved, their property confiscated, and their children forcibly
baptized.
1010 A.D The Bishop of
Limoges (France) had signs in the cities' Jews, who would not convert to
Christianity, must be expelled or killed.
1050 A.D Synod of Narbonne
prohibited Christians from living in
Jewish homes.
1078 A.D Synod of Gerona
required Jews to pay taxes to support the Church.
1096 A.D. First Crusade
were 12,000 Jews slaughtered in Mainz, Cologne, Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghoven,
Xanten, Moers, Dortmund, Kerpen, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Prag and others (All
locations Germany except Metz/France, Prag/Czech.
1147 A.D. Second Crusade
were hundreds of Jews were slain in Ham, Sully, Carentan, and Rameru (all locations
in France).
1179 A.D. Third Lateran
Council prohibited certain medical care to be provided by Christians to Jews.
1189 A.D. Third Crusade:
English Jewish communities sacked in Fulda/Germany.
1215 A.D. Fourth Lateran
Council required Jews to wear special clothing to distinguish them from
Christians.
1235 A.D. 34 Jewish men and
women slain.
1267 A.D. Jewish
communities of London, Canterbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Cambridge, and others
exterminated.
1290 A.D. in Bohemian
(Poland) 10,000 Jews were killed.
1337 A.D. Starting in
Deggendorf Germany a Jew-killing frenzy reaches 51 towns in Bavaria, Austria,
and Poland.
1348 A.D. All Jews of
Basel/Switzerland and Strasbourg/France (two thousand) burned.
1349 A.D. In more than 350
towns in Germany all Jews murdered, mostly burned alive (in this one year more
Jews were killed than Christians in 200 years of ancient Roman persecution of
Christians.
1389 A.D In Prag 3,000 Jews
were slaughtered.
1391 A.D Seville's Jews
killed led by Archbishop Martinez, 4,000 were slain, 25,000 sold as slaves.
Their identification was made easy by the brightly colored "badges of
shame" that all jews above the age of ten had been forced to wear.
1431-1443 A.D. Council of
Basel forbade Jews to attend universities, acting as agents in the conclusion
of contracts between Christians, and required that they attend church sermon,
the removal of former religious and governing privileges, the curtailment of
Rabbinical jurisdiction, Prohibition of missionary work, Jews were no longer allowed
to hold high office, and have military careers (e.g. legislation in 537 A.D.
which prohibited local Jewish people from serving on municipal bodies).
1492 A.D. In the year
Columbus set sail to conquer a New World, more than 150,000 Jews were
expelled from Spain, many died on their way.
▲
ZIONISTS – CHRISTIANS AND JEWS
Israel is and always has
been one of the most controversial words which many Christians prefer to avoid,
ignoring the fact that Jesus as well, is the most controversial issue of the
human history -- the cross is controversy, the blood is controversy and the
Bible as a whole is controversy. So must the Church drop them and water down
everything God intended for His glory?
God even calls Himself
"The God of Israel". He is not limited to certain names or missions
of salvation only, or He is the one who sets the law, but He is also in control
of human history. This "human destiny" is the theme of the Jewish
Scriptures and is all intertwined with the people and the Nation of Israel.
Israel after the Diaspora
and the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. started the first Zionist
movement which is simply defined as the longing and striving to restore the
Jewish people back to Israel. This "longing" which was based on the
Bible and exercised by the Jewish people for two millennia. This longing
finally was given life after the establishment of The Zionist Organization in
1897, the year of the first Zionist Congress.
Before the Zionist Congress
took root, there was always a vast minority of Christians who supported the
view of a Jewish return, but after the Jews were expelled from the Promised
Land under Hadrian in 135 A.D. they began focusing on the quick return of Jesus
and laid the Jewish issue to rest.
Many Christian writers throughout history supported the Zionist idea.
The historian, Frederick M. Schweitzer, in his work entitled, A History of the
Jews Since the First Century A.D. wrote: "Scots are very proud that unlike
`the kingdom to the south' their homeland has never been desecrated by
anti-Semitism, expulsions, confiscations, or ill-feeling of any kind toward
Jews . . ." (page 295). This happy condition is due to their Calvinist
heritage.
John Calvin (1509-1564) was
one of the foremost leaders in the Protestant Reformation in Europe. John Knox
(1515-1572) perpetuated Calvin's teaching in Scotland. Hence, Calvin's
principles of his theology are embodied in the creeds and practice of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland. "To follow Calvin meant to live a high
degree of holiness, seeking to know and follow the will of God." (Elgin S.
Moyer. The Wycliffe Bio-graphical Dictionary of the Church, p. 73).
As early as 1650 A.D.
hundreds of books were written regarding the Jewish return to the land in light
of Bible Prophecy. Peter Jurieu, the "Goliath of the French
Protestants" wrote in 1687 regarding the fulfillments of Bible prophecies
for the Jewish return:
"To the Nation of the
Jews... I desire of that people, that they would please to read this book
attentively, and without prejudice... I confess the hopes they conceive of a
Kingdom of the Messiah ...is built upon express and unquestionable prophecies;
that even their Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and that they should be again
gathered together in their own land." (Approaching Deliverance of the
Church, 1687 A.D.).
Joseph Eyre in 1771
published a scholarly essay entitled "Observations upon Prophecies
Relating to the Restoration of the Jews." He drew public attention to the
ancient biblical promises from the Creator to Abraham, concerning the
geographical area which the descendants of Abraham would occupy known as the
"Promised Land" (Genesis 15:18-21; 17:7-8). Concerning the return of
the Jews from the lands of their dispersion, Eyre quoted at length from the
Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, in the Hebrew Scriptures, chapters 36 and 37. Here
is pictured a major prophecy that the "whole House of Israel" would
experience a resurrection from the `graves'.
Holger Paulli (1644-1714),
a Danist pietist, believed whole-heartedly in the Jewish Return to the
"Promised Land" as a condition for the second coming of Christ. He
would have been motivated by Jesus' own promise to return (John 14:1-3), and by
the promise of angelic messengers who, at Jesus' ascension, declared this same
Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
you have seen Him go into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). The Apostle Paul also wrote
that the Deliverer, meaning the Messiah, would come to Zion, and all Israel
would be saved (Romans 11:26). Paulli published books and memoranda which he
dispatched to the kings of France and England calling on them to help the Jews
in their desire to return and regain their statehood.
John Toland (1670-1722) from
Ireland was an active participant in the theological and political debates
of contemporary England. During 1700 A.D from Ireland, he was an active
participant in the theological and political debates in contemporary England.
In 1714 he published his Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and
Ireland on the Same Footing with All Other Nations. He was a forerunner of the
modern human rights movement. He spoke against the backdrop of Jewish ghettos
in Europe. Jews having no official status in England until 1866 when the House
of Commons admitted Lionel de Rothchild, the first Jewish Member of Parliament.
The most famous English Jew
of the 19th century was, of course, Benjamin Disraeli, whom Queen Victoria
nobled as Lord Beaconsfield, who twice became the Prime Minister of England,
first in 1868.
In 1714 he published his
Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland on the Same
Footing with all Other Nations. This champion of human rights spoke against the
background of Jewish "ghettos" in Europe, and Jews had no official
status in England until 1866 when the House of Commons admitted Lionel de
Rothschild, first Jewish Member of Parliament.
The most famous English Jew
of the 19th century was Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) whom Queen Victoria
ennobled as Lord Beaconsfield, who became the Prime Minister in 1868.
Joseph Heir in 1771
published a scholarly essay entitled Observations Upon Prophecies Relating to
the Restoration of the Jews.
Danish priest, Holeger
Paulli (1644-1714) believed wholeheartedly in the Jewish return to the Promised
Land as a condition for the Second Coming of Christ. Paulli published books and
memoranda which he dispatched to the kings of France and England calling upon
them to help the Jews in their desire to return and regain their statehood.
The first world leader of
great reputation to acknowledge the Jewish claim to the Promised Land Napoleon
in 1799 made a statement:
"Jews! Unique nation of the world! For thousands of years the
tyranny of the world has succeeded in depriving you of your ancestral lands but
it has not eradicated your name, nor your national existence... Legitimate
heirs of the Land of Israel!... Hurry! The moment has arrived to claim the
return of your rights among the nations of the world. You must claim for
yourselves a national existence as states among states, and your unencroachable
right to bow down before God according to your faith, publicly and
forever." Napoleon Bonaparte's "Appeal to the Jews," encamped at
Mount Tabor before his defeat at Acre, 1798.
Lord Palmerston, British
Foreign Secretary, wrote in 1840 A.D:
"There exists at the
present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe a strong notion that the time
is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine. It would be of
manifest importance to the Sultan (Turkey) to encourage the Jews to return and
settle in Palestine because the wealth that they would bring with them would
increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions, and the Jewish people if
returning under the sanction and protection at the invitation of the Sultan
would be a check upon any future evil designs of Egypt or its neighbours. I
wish to instruct your Excellency strongly to recommend to the Turkish
government to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return
to Palestine."
Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony
Ashley Cooper, 1801-1885) was a man of unshakeable faith who based his life on
literal acceptance of the Bible. His guiding principle in life was the old
Judeo-Christian Bible decree: "Love thy neighbor as thyself". The
Jews he always called "God's ancient people", and he accepted them in
the same way that he accepted the Bible," wrote Dr. Pragai. It was the era
when Christians of the Western culture were taking an interest in biblical
lands.
Jews all over Europe were
expressing their hope of return to their homeland. Lord Palmerston, British
Foreign Secretary, wrote in 1840 to the British Ambassador in Constantinople
(modern Istanbul in NW Turkey), the Sultan's seat. He expressed the British
policy to keep the Ottoman regime in power as long as possible. He made a
recommendation to his Empire's benefit involving the Jewish people with
reference to Palestine:
"There exists at the
present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the
time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine. . . . It would
be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and
settle in Palestine because the wealth which they would bring with them would increase
the resources of the Sultan's dominions; and the Jewish people, if returning
under the sanction and protection, and at the invitation of the Sultan, would
be a check upon any future evil designs of Mehemet Ali (of Egypt) or his
successor. . . . I have to instruct Your Excellency strongly to re-commend (to
the Turkish Government) to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of
Europe to return to Palestine.".
William H. Hechler
(1845-1931), a British clergyman, met Dr. Herzl in 1896, and became a sympathizer
and close friend. Hechler said:
"All that this
remarkable movement now requires is the public recognition and protection of
the Sovereigns of Europe . . . the Jewish State is successful, which it must be
according to the Bible, for the Jews are then to be a blessing to the
nations."
Hechler personally wrote to
the German Emperor. Towards the end of 1898, the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, wrote in
reply:
"I have been able to
notice that the emigration to the land of Palestine of those Jews who are ready
for it, is being prepared extremely well and it is even financially sound in
every respect. . . . I am convinced that the settlement of the Holy Land . . .
will soon bring blessing to the land.".
That same year the Kaiser
made a formal visit to Jerusalem and met Dr. Herzl and members of the Zionist
organization just outside the Jaffa Gate. "It amounted to a clear act of
recognition of the Zionist Movement by the Sovereign of a crucially important
Protestant European power," Pragai noted in his book.
When Mehemet Ali of Egypt
threatened the Sultan in 1838, Palmerston and Ashley influenced the Turkish
Government to permit the establishment of a British Consulate in Jerusalem.
Ashley's delight over the achievement is reflected in his diary:
"The ancient city of
the people of God is about to resume a place among the nations, and England is
the first of Gentile kingdoms that ceases "to tread her down."
Nathan Burnbaum in 1890
supported the veiw of the return of the Jewish people to Israel. From 1896 the
term "Zionism" referred to the political movement founded by Theodore
Hertzel who's goal was to establish a Jewish State in Israel.".
In Britain as a result of
the King James Version wide circulation and in the reign of King James I, Henry
Finch (about 1560 A.D.), a member of British Parliament, encouraged Jews to
study the Old Testament and assert their claim to the Promised Land.
Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, who
became the second President of the State of Israel, commented as follows:
"We are witnessing today the wondrous process of the joining of the tribes
of Israel bone to bone and flesh to flesh; the merging of them into one nation.
I pray that the Rock and Redeemer of Israel may prosper our ways and that in
our days Judah may be saved and Israel dwell securely."
The one recent historical
event that has forced many theologians, to re-examine their suppositions
concerning the Jews is the physical rebirth of unexpected nation of Israel in
1948. Yet before that many others have already forseen this as they studied and
trusted the Bible:
"And it shall come to
pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of His people.. .and He shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:11)
"And I will bring
again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities
and inhabit them...and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, sayeth the Lord
thy God." (Amos 9:14,15).
"At that time they
shall call Jerusalem the throne of the lord; AND ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE
GATHERED UNTO IT, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they
walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart." (Jeremiah 3:17)
"Yet will I set my
King upon my holy hill of Zion" (Psalm 2:6)
"Hear the Word of the
LORD, O ye nations. Declare it and say, He that scattered Israel will gather
him, therefore, they shall come and sing again in the heights of Zion."
Jeremiah 31:10-12.
"and the Kings to the
brightness of thy rising. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to thee Israel.
Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles and thou shalt know that I am the
LORD, thy Saviour, thy Redeemer, the Might One of Jacob. They (the Gentiles)
shall call thee (Israel) the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of
Israel." (Isaiah 60).
The Apostle Paul also wrote
that the Deliverer (meaning the Messiah) would come to Zion; and all Israel
would then be saved (Romans 11:26).
At the end we will
reconnect with the Jewish heritage of our Christian faith and understand that
true Christians are in reality "Spiritual Jews".
Before Herzl's vision, some
Rabbis had the same goals such as Rabbis Mohilever and Kalisher and the Netziv.
The Chafetz Chaim, in a letter to his son in 1850, wrote that "God was
remembering ... His people ; and it was possible the beginning of the
ingathering of the exiles ... if it were within our means it would be fitting
for us to buy some land and go on aliya."
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalisher
wrote in 1862 that salvation, according to the prophets, must be achieved in a
natural way, by self-help, and not by awaiting the Messiah, and he urged that
colonization of Palestine be undertaken immediately. (Drishat Zion).
What sparked Herzl's vision
for a National Homeland was a scandal known as the Dreyfus Affair. Alfred
Dreyfus was a French artillery officer and someone on the staff was passing
military information to Germany. Captain Drayfus was the only Jew on the staff
and his loyalty was suspect. He was accused, tried, convicted and
court-martialled and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.. But
famous writers like Emile Zola took up the battle to prove his innocence. The
ugliest and most frightening aspect of the Dreyfus Affair was the anti-Semitism
it brought to the surface throughout the general public of France.
The battle for Dreyfus'
innocence continued until the President of France granted a pardon and he was
released. With a new government in power, Dreyfus was reinstated in the army,
promoted to the rank of Major and awarded the order of the Legion of Honour.
After ten years of prison in chains, solitude, privation and tropical fever
Drayfus was a figure of a broken man.
However, a Jewish
journalist from Vienna named Theodore Herzl was assigned to cover that trial.
What it did was not only to change the life of Theodore Herzl, but put the
modern Zionist movement on the fast track. Following observing the trial and
seeing the mobs screaming for "Death to the Jews!" in the streets of
Paris, he conceived a program for a national and territorial solution and
published it under the title The Jewish State in 1896. A year later, in 1897, the
first Zionist Congress met in Basil, Switzerland. Herzl's vision for a homeland
for the Jewish people was in Palestine.
To accomplish this he
needed the sympathy of the Turkish Sultan, for Palestine was under the rule of
the Ottoman Empire, and he needed the support of the Kaiser of Germany.
Actually, Herzl had a Christian Zionist advisor by the name of William Hechler,
a British clergyman ,who met Herzl in 1896 and became a sympathizer and close
friend.
Hechler said this:
"All that this remarkable movement now requires is the public recognition
and protection of the sovereigns of Europe.
If the Jewish State is
successful, which it must be according to the Bible, the Jews are then to be a
blessing to the nations." Hechler, having connections with the British
Government, personally wrote to the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and he
answered in reply: "I have been able to notice that the immigration to the
land of Palestine of those Jews who are ready for it is being prepared
extremely well, and it is even financed soundly in every respect. I am
convinced that the settlement of the Holy Land will soon bring blessing to the
Land."
The very same year the
Kaiser made a formal visit to Jerusalem, met Dr. Herzl and members of the
Zionist organization just outside the Jaffa Gate of the old city of Jerusalem.
Pragai in his book wrote: "It amounted to a clear act of recognition of
the Zionist Movement by the sovereign of a crucially important Protestant
European power, Germany." So the trickle has become a stream and is moving
towards being a river which cannot be stopped.
Part Seven:
"Providence"
It has well been said that
God fulfills His ways mainly by what we call "the Providence of God".
Like the Children of Israel, we don't see the details; we see the results. At
the beginning of World War I, Britain found herself dangerously short of
acetone, a chemical substance needed for producing the cordite explosive in
artillery shells. Winston Churchill had succeeded Arthur Balfour as First Lord
of the Admiralty. Dr. Cheim Weizmann, a Russian born Jew, was the teacher of
chemistry at Manchester University. Churchill asked Weizmann if he could make
30,000 tons of acetone synthetically, and Dr. Wiseman undertook the difficult
task.
At this point in W.W. I,
the Allies were losing the war, and yet a year later Germany had been defeated.
As Minister of Munitions, David Lloyd George, who later was to become Prime
Minister, offered Weizmann a suitable honour in appreciation of his work.
Weizmann replied that he wanted nothing for himself, only British support for
the Jewish aspirations in Palestine. As it happened, by the Providence of God,
at that time the British War Cabinet was made up of a number of Christian
Zionists. Lord Arthur James Balfour himself, British Statesmen, on November 2,
1917, wrote a letter to the then most important Jew in England, Lord
Rothschild, a Jewish scientist and in fact a member of the House of Lords. That
letter in the name of the British Foreign Office became the famous Balfour
Declaration which in part read: "His Majesty's Government views with
favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people." Balfour himself was a dedicated Christian Zionist, who belonged
to the Restoration Movement.
The people who belonged to
this movement were dedicated evangelical Christians who labored hard to help
establish the state of Israel.
Abba Eban in his work of
history entitled "My People" remarked: "Without Balfour's help
there would have been no Declaration."
General Allenby, who
captured Jerusalem from the Turks December 9, 1917, was a dedicated Christian
Zionist who many Christians believed that he with Chaim Weisman were used by
God to do the job of establishing Israel.
David Lloyd George the
Prime Minister of England, and Jan Smuts, the Defense Minister of South Africa,
serving in the British War Cabinet, also were ardent Christian Zionist. General
Smuts, a Welshman, who studied the Old Testament sympathised with the Jewish
people as did the the Dutch people in general who respected the Jews.
In 1920, Jewish Sir Herbert
Samuel was invited by Prime Minister Lloyd George to become the first Governor
of the Holy Land since Pompei the Roman General captured the temple in 63 B.C.
The U.S and it's
predsidents with their herritage in the Bible, stood by Israel during her birth
pangs. The Puritans also who came to America patterned their religious and
secular life after the Old Testament. The Hebrew language was in fact taught at
Harvard University from 1635 on. President Lincoln who revoked General Grant's
order in 1862 that all Jews be expelled from the territories under his
authority. President Woodwork Wilson, a Presbeterian was in favour of Zionism
during World War and gave encouragement to the Balfour Declaration.
Jeremiah 32:37,38,41
declared: "Behold, I will gather them out of the countries where I have
driven them in My anger. I will bring them back to this place and I will cause
them to dwell safely. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good and I will
assuredly plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul."
Leviticus 26:23 promised:
"I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you. Your
land will be desolate and your cities waste." Zechariah 7:14, "But I
scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known.
Thus the land they left became desolate so that no one passed through or
returned."
Today, over one years after
that return began in the late 1800's, the Jews continue to pour into the
Promised Land. Since December 1989, in eight short years, one-third of all the
former Soviet Union Jews, nearly 700,000 people, have made the return.
"Alyiah" the Hebrew name for the return. Which means around 12 per
cent of Israel's population today has arrived in the last seven years. In fact,
nearly 100,000 more are expected in the year 1997. Year after year for hundreds
and thousands of years the Jews have faithfully obeyed God's command to
remember the Passover; thankful of the time when God delivered them from Egyptian
bondage, and He smote the first born of Egypt including Pharaoh's own son.
Today some Christian
organizations like the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. helps Jews
to go home to Israel. To date they have brought some 26,000 Jewish people out of
Eastern European hot spots including Georgia and very inhospitable places to
Jewish people. Other organizations are bringing them out in large boats out of
the Black Sea area to Haifa.
No matter where they have
been inside their Promised Land or in exile from it, and no matter under what
conditions they have lived, in the brief interludes of peace and prosperity, or
suffering the persecutions, Crusades, pogroms, expulsions, Inquisition, and
Holocaust, the Jews have given thanks to the God who delivered them from Egypt
and brought them to their Promised Land. And yet the Bible says that this
second and final ingathering of the Jews that we are witnessing today will
overshadow that great Passover event. Jeremiah 16:14-15 stated:
"Therefore, behold the
days are coming," says the LORD, "that it shall no more be said, 'The
LORD lives who brought us up from the land of Egypt, but the LORD lives who
brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
lands where He had driven them. For I will bring them back into their land
which I gave to their fathers."
Yes, in bringing physical
Israel back home, God has been raising up an announcement, a banner to the
nations - one they are unable to ignore no matter how unpopular it is -
confronting the world with the reality of God's eternal existence; His
undiminished sovereignty; and His unlimited might and power.
Isaiah 11:11,12 also
predicted it. "It shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall set
His hand again the second time (the first, was the return from Babylon) to
recover the remnant of His people who are left. He will set up a banner
announcing to the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
God told Joshua that He had
brought them out of Egypt to bring them into the Promised Land, and today it is
certain that God has brought them back to bless them in the land and to more
than increase their physical inheritance, but to bring them back to Himself.
The great purpose is yet largely unfulfilled: the rebirth of the Jewish people
spiritually in the land.
A cataclysmic event, the
ingathering of the Jews has shaken the dust of centuries of blindness from
Christian eyes, awakening them to the fact that the nation of Israel still
occupies its original, extraordinary, special place in God's purposes for
mankind. None the less, ingrained anti-Semitism continues to color the lenses
through which many Christians are observing this incredible physical return.
For even as they recognize
that the Jews have been hounded and afflicted in every land in which they have
sought refuge down the years, millions of these Christians still believe that
the Jews are being returned to their ancient homeland only to face more of
God's anger and judgment - to be driven to their knees. However, the Bible
doesn't say so. The Bible is quite clear on this matter. The dispersion from
the land was a curse. The restoration to the land is a blessing - first,
physically and then spiritually.
Psalm 80, the Shepherd of
Israel is beseeched to cause His face to shine on the scattered people of
Israel; not to pour out His anger upon them, and finishes "we shall be
saved." Psalm 102:13, in the context of the re-gathering of the prophet writes,
"You will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time to favor her, yes, the
set time has come." Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Zephaniah and almost every
Jewish prophet promise that the Jews shall return and dwell safely and none
shall make them afraid. Jeremiah 31:10 promises to re-gather Israel and keep
him as a shepherd does his flock. In Isaiah 41:8-16, God tells re-gathered
Israel, "Fear not and be not dismayed " ; He promised that His
righteous right hand (not their own self-righteousness), will uphold Israel;
and that those who strive and war with Israel shall perish and become nothing.
In Zephaniah 3:15 He
promises that He will take away Israel's judgments and cast out her enemies and
that she shall see disaster no more. And in Deuteronomy 30:9, Jeremiah 32:41,
Isaiah 62:5, and Zephaniah 3:17, God promises that as He returns Israel and
plants her in the land, He will rejoice over her with gladness and singing.
Ezekiel 36:24-26, "I
will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and
bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you
shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. Then I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; then I
will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh."
As we read in 2 Samuel 7
"Moreover
I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may
dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of
wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, And as since the time that I
commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from
all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house …
He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his
kingdom for ever… And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever
before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever…"
This is a restoration that
only Israel as a nation is destined for. While the Gentiles are descending into
chaos, Israel is rising and destined for great things. Imagine, if the physical
restoration of the Jews has caused such a mighty stirring among the peoples of
the world, what will their salvation and spiritual restoration do? Then the
nations will truly no longer say, "Where is their God?" Looking upon
Israel they will say, "There is there God!" "The nations shall
know that I am the LORD, says the LORD God when I am hallowed in you before
their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all
the countries, and bring you into your own land, and I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you shall be clean."
▲
GENTILE CHRISTIANS – SHOULD THEY BE ZIONISTS?
The Word of God makes it
clear not only that He who scattered Israel will gather them (Jeremiah 31:10),
but that God will use Gentiles to help carry them home:
"But the LORD will
have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in
their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of
Jacob. 2And the nations will take them and bring them to their
place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations as male and female
slaves in the LORD's land; they will take captive those who were their captors,
and rule over those who oppressed them. (Isaiah 14:1,2)
"Thus says the Lord
God: I will soon lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal
to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and
your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be
your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they
shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will
know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.
Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrante
be rescued? But thus says the LORD:
Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant
be rescued; for I will contend with those who contend with you, and
I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own
flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with
wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your
Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." (Isaiah 49:22-26).
In addition to being
biblical, Israel is now a nation. The Jews in the Diaspora, the dispersion,
have always been in danger and Satan still seeks to destroy them. Many
holocausts have taken place and most people hope that history will not be repeated.
However, Jews outside Israel are still in danger of assimilation, anti-Semitism
and even annihilation. The difference between past generations and now is that
the Jews have a home to go to. Since 1948, Israel is a fact. In addition to
being biblical and having a nation, chaos looms in the future.
The breakup of the former
Soviet Union with the resulting economic and political instability. The Ukraine
has the highest density of Jewish people in the former Soviet Union as well as
the most tragic history of anti-Semitism. Centuries ago God said through the
prophet Zechariah, "Come, come, flee from the land of the north.".
Not only from Russia (The Land of the North) but out of more than a hundred
different nations.
Romans 15: 27 "You
Gentiles Owe it to the Jews to help them in Earthly matters". This command
and the increasing opportunities to reach out to the Jewish people and speak a
prophetic word concerning God's desire for them. The Scripture is clear in many
passages like Ezekiel Chapter 37 that God's program is physical restoration of
Israel, followed by spiritual to a world-wide revival.(Romans 11:15,26) It is
God's primary intention to bless the Jews in the land and from that land to
make Jews a blessing to the whole world " to all the families of the
earth" to bring glory to His holy Name. (Genesis 12:3)
▲
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY - HISTORY
Opinions: "The
viewpoint which is held by the vast majority of Christians today and which was
the only viewpoint until the 19th century has no historical basis, while your
view point which is barely two centuries old is valid historically
speaking...... I'm confused!".
Also: "my opinion is
the opinion of most Arab Christians most of them are Orthodox or Catholic, and
you know what the Orthodox and Catholic teach regarding Israel and the Jews -
they teach what you call 'replacement theology'".
Response: While this common
opinion only gets to show support to one of the most evil ideas that was
promoted throughout the centuries, yet I doubt that many Christians even
realizes how evil it is. However, we do need to hold responsible the silence of
many who witness and ignore this issue.
Indeed many Catholic
teachings confuse between what the disciples and the first believers have
always taught, and what many church fathers in the Catholic Church wanted to
promote, some misguided church fathers dropped what the Apostles Peter, Paul,
Timothy, and John taught to follow Saint Augestine and his errors. It was
Augustine around A.D. 400 who ultimately articulated the idea, principally in
his well-known work, The City of God.
Augustine admitted that at
one time he had espoused the prominent doctrine of "Chiliasm" the
sound biblical truth that was taught by the apostles, the belief in a future
millennium, in which the Church and redeemed Israel will be blessed by the
personal return and reign of Christ on the earth. However, he had since come to
what he calls "more satisfactory" view that the Church has replaced
Israel forever. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in fulfillment of
prophecy, and the Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. The question
would be which of Augustine views is more sound the previous views he espoused?
Or his newer one? In other words, which doctrine is more sound, the original
one, or the one that has been used longer? One would think that the original
supersedes, it is closer to what the apostles taught and to what their master
Jesus Christ taught as well.
The other question would be
on what basis did Augustine abandon the earlier apostolic views? These
questions are difficult to answer by Replacement Theology supporters. In fact
they would support other views held by certain cults like Islam rather then
cling to what the Apostles taught, since Islam and Arab Christians would agree
on their position towards Israel. One thing is clear, it is not a conviction
that depends on research and study of scripture, but a state of heart plagued
with centuries of dependence on tradition that is clouded with half-truths,
taught from father to son, in the pulpits, and even in school classrooms. This
twisted history and media rhetoric put thick scales in Middle Eastern eyes, a
corrupt history that can be matched with Nazi Germany, and ironically speaks to
Israel, as they are the Nazis themselves. Arab students are never taught Jewish
history, they really hardly ever look at scripture for themselves, programmed
by repetition of old propaganda and repeated lies to the point that they end up
believing that they have divine truth.
One would think that the
Palestinians who live in the midst of the conflict would be the experts on the
situation, but in reality the opposite is true; their schools are infested with
one sided half truths, their mosques preach hatred from the pulpit, and their
priests call out for the destruction of Israel, Christian and Muslim alike in
Israel are all part of this brain wash. They have listened for so long to
repeated propaganda lies, that these lies were recorded by repetetion into
their minds as truth.
They have chose to live in
isolation from the Jew, the Jew on the other hand is so afraid of the Arab that
he too is isolated. You have barb-wired Jewish settlements on the hilltops, and
Arab villages in the valleys, and no one intermingles with no one.
The Arab Christians on the
other hand are unaware of their blinded stand against the Jew, they stand with
Muslims on the same path of struggle, they are unaware, or maybe look the other
way at much of the evidence of repeated history, that Islam hold an
"extreme" position and a different form of Replacement Theology than
their "Christian" brothers, this 'Replacement' does not only exclude
Israel from the land, but the Christians as well, as Islam has no problem using
anyone to oppose an arch enemy until they reach to power, then any other theology
that could challenge theirs, must be eliminated as well including the ones who
supported them all along. Just like the beast mentioned in Revelations uses the
whore, then turns on her to destroy her.
This, has been proven
throughout history, but the only way Arab Christians can see it, is to study
hundreds of historical events from time immemorial showing the atrocities
committed by Muslims toward the Christian, they overlook the 1.5 million
Armenian Christians slaughtered, the Sudan Muslims killing and destroying one
million Christians and annihilating almost all Nubian Christians, and the
forced conversions of almost every Christian nation on the East.
During the last seven years
alone in the country of Sudan. The Muslim terror has become fiercest since the
coming power of dictator General Haasan El-Bashi. The Muslims attacked
Christian villages. The young between the ages of 13 and 20 were shot without
judgment. UN reports say that others were burned alive in their huts. Many
churches were closed or destroyed. Sudan is forcibly Islamized. Males get
circumcised. Leaders of animist tribes were invited by the authorities to a
"conference," and then they were shot. Crucifixion and stoning of
Christians and torture with red-hot iron bars is a horrifying reality, that
accompanied with mass expultions and starvation with a silent world who have
not shed a tear or raised a voice. The Muslim oil to the West has become more
valuable then Christian blood far away in Africa.
Only future can show that
history usually repeats itself that Islam was able to conquer, not Jewish
communities only, but entire Christian nations as well. Little is remembered by
Christian Arabs that Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and even many parts of Saudi Arabia,
was Christian. The Jews eventually were destroyed or exiled, and the Christians
put to the Islamic sharp sword, given the choices of Shahadatan or death. The
East was lost to Islam, due to their weakness and alternative beliefs by
saints, substituting apostolic teachings to a world full of icons, lukewarm
faith, and lack of adherence to scripture, and unfortunately, even my plea
would be viewed as a divisive betrayal scheme based on the old principle of
"divide and conquer". The Middle East is plagued with supposed
conspiracy theories that everything evil must have been generated by Zionist
ideas, the same errors promoted in Communist and Nazi systems, is sadly being
promoted in the East as well.
Regardless that in 4,000
years of history, the Jews have not occupied anybody else's land nor enslaved
or "ethnically cleansed" any nation on earth, yet they are the most
despised people ever. Where are the Arab and Muslim outcry for mass murder of
Muslim Curds in Iraq, the occupation of Lebanon by Syria, the destruction of
Sudan's Christians, or the 1.5 million Armenians butchered by Muslim Turkey? Do
we hear a peep? No wonder Jesus said of Israel: "Ye shall be hated of all
nations,". This "Nation" could only mean Israel. Jesus sadly
told his Jewish disciples in Israel, and so it has come about (Matt. 24:9).
Even the ones who are not
traditionalist Christians who are eager for some enlightenment, approach
scripture, and instead of accepting its simple truths that were written to
peasants and shepherds, they instead totally trust the supposed "enlightened
ones", in order to escape the clear and simple statements presented in
scripture concerning all these obvious verses that God in simple language
supports a Jewish return, they would solicit the aid of these "enlightened
ones" who would force certain interpretations by excluding verses without
looking at the whole context of scripture, and as we should see, the context of
a certain passage is ignored by this school of thought and not encouraged to
see even the whole context of the main theme of scripture.
The end results of these
interpretations are a perfect harmony with whatever tickles the ears of Yasser
Arafat, Hanan Ashrawi, George Habbash, and the rest of the corrupt political
spectrum of the Palestinian Authorities.
The whole theme of
Scripture is the story of the fallen man, who is in need of redemption with a
loving creator that sends His son through a chosen nation "Israel"
whom He had promised with an everlasting covenant, that by them a redeemer
would come, for some of them who would betray Him, yet in the end He will come
back to them, as He remembers His "eternal" covenant, and rescues them
in Jerusalem from the Gentile world that attacks His beloved chosen people from
every nation and from every side. Instead, it becomes an Ecumenical movement
uniting the good, bad, and the ugly to look at only "Christ" and
ignore almost everything else. In reality, it is the Ecumenical Movement that
is of recent origin and the one behind the vale of Satan riding all the way to
Mystery Babylon on a back of the demonic beast of world alliance.
Unfortunately, Satan is
always at work as The Lord told us, to deceive even "The very elect",
and "
Christendom" canonized
Augustine's evil ideas by establishing him as an official saint, and
theologians throughout the Roman Empire accepted his false doctrine.
The Chiliasts were branded
as holding "aberrant and heretical views", and Augustinian
Replacement Theology with other false theologies became the
"cornerstone" of the Roman Catholic concepts. In the later developments
in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the European Reformation and the Anglican
split, Replacement Theology continued essentially untouched. It was an
important part of the standard Christian view of Israel, the world, and
prophecy. This view which "evolved" had no basis in what the Apostles
taught, on the contrary, instead of being Biblical became anti-Biblical as
cursing Israel in reality is cursing God's chosen people since Roman
persecution, the Holocaust, and the Russian Pogroms and the inquisitions used
this type of theology in order to destroy the Jew. How can anyone claim
Biblical Christianity and support this view and not seeing the dangers?
Worse then this, the effect
of all of this on Christian attitudes about Israel was devastating. In
actuality, Replacement Theology disenfranchised Israel from having a continuing
covenant relationship with God. Instead of looking at Jerusalem as the
"City of the Great King," in which Christ will reign for a thousand
years upon His return, they saw Jerusalem's perpetual desolation as much as a
confirmation of Christianity as the destruction of Pharaoh's army in the Red
Sea was a confirmation of Moses.
The Marcion heresy
expressed the extreme form of this view. Marcion proposed that the Old
Testament be abandoned, a thing that many Arab Christians stand for, but that
was unacceptable to the Church and a better way to de-Judaise the Hebrew
Scriptures was to Christianize the Hebrew Scriptures so as to spiritualize the
text and read New Testament concepts into the text. That view is still
prevalent today.
The Bible, however, is
consistent, and the great truths of Scripture are consistent throughout
Scripture. This one reference does not give us license to use this title for
the Church, nor to see the Jewish People as abandoned by God.
To argue that we should
follow what certain "Church Fathers" teach would be in contradiction
to what Replacement Theology advocates teach themselves, since the promoters of
this view would insist to tell a Jews to ignore many errors of there fathers
the Rabbis and seek the Word of God the original Hebrew Prophets.
Replacement Theology's
misguided approach to the Bible not only led millions of Christians astray over
the years but it has, in addition, birthed evil of the most horrific proportions.
Replacement Theology played a role in the persecution of Jews by the church
through the centuries, including the Holocaust." (quote by Malcolm
Hedding), since all the promises and blessings and Israel's entire inheritance,
now belongs to the Church while
Israel gets to keep the
curses.
This false interpretation
instituted originally by Rome, was a great stumbling block to the Jews as it
prevents them from recognizing their own Messiah,.
"Remove the obstacles
out of the way of my people. " Isaiah 57:14b.
God has in no way either
rejected or replaced Israel and the Jewish people. His covenant with them is
unconditional and non- transferable. God's covenants and promises were never
based on Israel's good behavior, but were based on God's faithfulness toward
His people. Although the Jewish people have suffered the consequences of
breaking God's Laws, just as all do, they have not been replaced or rejected.
The scriptures make that quite clear:
▲
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY - THE OPINION OF THE MASSES
Opinion: "What I
believe in is what all Christians believed in until the 19th century and what
the majority of Christians believe in today!
This form of opinion rooted
in blindness more than facts is glad to pick up any heresies, errors, clutter,
evil, or false doctrine that crept up throughout the centuries. It forgets that
reformation was necessary to keep Christians on track and to protect the
believers of many false teachings promoted by these "Church Fathers".
In this common opinion even Martin Luther would be wrong since he went against
what Church Fathers promoted in the Roman Catholic Church.
Replacement Theology is
still the majority view among professing Christian theologians, but
Premillennialism is by and large considered a legitimate and vocal minority, at
least in Evangelical Protestant circles.
Such organizations as the
Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches which include both
Protestant and Catholic elements have, for the last half-century, taken
positions favoring the Arab and Moslem enemies of Israel. It is with
considerable reluctance that the Vatican has recognized Israel, and the
Church's primary interest is in asserting its influence in maintaining its Holy
Places in Jerusalem. Similarly, the World Council of Churches has consistently
pled the cause of Palestinians against the claims of Israel.
Thus, Christianity has,
because of its differing theological views about the future of Israel, had a
divided attitude about Zionism and the revived State of Israel.
Already in Numbers, chap. 14,
the option of replacement theology is presented and flatly rejected.
The option was that God
would kill all the Israelites because of their sinfulness, and He would start
all over again from the beginning. He would not reject the IDEA of a chosen
people, but He would destroy the people descended from Abraham and start a new
people from Moses. This new start with one individual is rejected. God listened
to Moses prayer for His sinful people. God the Father has surely listened also
to the prayer of Jesus.
▲
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY - WHO IS A JEW?
The very verse that
Anti-Zionists and Replacement Theology advocates use and love to quote to prove
their point that God had no more plans for the Jew, that God replaced them by
others, this very verse in reality backfires:
"For he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the
flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter;
whose praise is not of men,
but of God." Romans 2:28,29.
While this verse never
stated that God is done with the Jew or replaced them, yet I wonder why can't
Replacement Theology advocates change their title from being called Christians
to Spiritual Jews? At lease that is exactly what this verse that they advocate
calls for? Especially when it is a New Testament verse intended for Christ's
followers?
If this verse meant that we
are a new breed of faith, the question would be is how could a one God dictate
more then one faith?
God has one and only one
faith He has called us for. That is of being Spiritual Jews or Jews at
"heart" AND "spirit" as the Bible puts it in this verse.
It is quite clear from this
verse that Paul was telling Christ's followers who were Jews, that what mattered
to God is not being circumcised in the flesh, but seeking the heart and the
spirit of God, to know the heart of God and follow His ways in obedience to His
Word, To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your might,
this is the first commandment.
From the Bible, it is clear
what title God wants us to be labeled as, it is crystal clear that
"spiritual" Jew is what God is after "But he is a Jew, which is
one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit.".
To many, that sounds like a
detested title, but to God, He chose the title of "Jew" for Christ,
the apostles, the prophets before them, and His followers as well. Today's
title as Christians is no where to be found in scripture, and I agree that we
are to follow Christ, yet the Bible states that we are to be followers of the
Messiah who came for the Jew first, then to the Gentile. I am by no means
forcing that we cannot use "Christians" as title, but argue the point
that the "Church" has not replaced the Jew.
For how long will we deny
God His ways?
Replacement Theology
advocates will try to persuade people that now they are God's chosen, since
they are the ones after God's heart, not these abandoned divorced Jews in the
flesh. Instead of loving these Jews by heart and spirit until death, witnessing
to them by God's truth, and setting the perfect example to them to find their
Messiah, instead of all that we are called to think that God is done with them,
and a new era of the faith have begun; a Christian era with Marys, icons, and
Crystal Cathedrals. There is no need for God to fulfill His plans for
Jerusalem, or establish David's seat on Zion. These verses too will be ignored,
and hardly ever read. For how long?
What happened to the God
who said: "I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem"?
It is clear then that
Israel will be first in unbelief and in her land when Gentile rule is finished
as the following verse shows:
"For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in
your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is
written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob. (Rom 11:25-26)
Isn't this the will of God
who clearly dictated:
"And it shall come to
pass in the last days, that the mountain 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 shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah
2:2-3).
Can we make Zion and
Jerusalem replaced by the Vatican, and the seat of Christ now is in Rome lead
by His Vicar, the Pontifus Maximus?
Where are all the verses
about Rome?
This is what we are lead to
believe, but does it square with the scripture?
In reality nothing changed
in the Christian world from the Jewish era, the same verse Replacement Theology
advocates use regarding the "fleshly circumsized" Jew and the
"Spiritual Jew" fits on them, as from time immomorial we have had
"fleshly Christians" (Christians by tradition) and "Spiritual
Christians" (Christians who follow scripture). In fact their were many
wars between the two with millions of casualties on the "Spiritual"
Christians.
Christians who claim to be Christians
and hate Jews at the same time, are in contradiction of their faith, Nazis,
KKK, Replacement Theology advocates, Anti-Zionests and whatever faith that is
anti Jew in reality are not following the perscription set by God.
In fact anti-Israel advocates
will not be able to even enjoy heaven which it's tweleve gates have the names
of the twelve tribes of Israel.
How will we ever get
healed?
How is it that we are so
blind?
Where are the verses that
say "we the Spiritual Jew have replaced God's plan for the circumsized
Jew?"
Doesn't God have plans for
them?
Doesn't God have hundreds
of verses describing their plan to become Spiritual Jews as well?
Hasn't God supplied us with
ample amount of scripture to show that He still loves the Jew and has a plan
for them?
How could we then be so
bent on isolating the vast amount of scripture by taking one verse or
two, twist them to
something else, and shed this sinister interpretation as a light on all
scripture?
Why would God choose the
word JEW if God all of the sudden abandoned and divorced them forever?
By studying scripture and
awareness of the cults, one could see that the most dangerous method that
"desguized believers" use by isolating few verses and derive
mountains of new invented theology.
Today we have The Faith
Theology, Jehovas Witnesses, Mormons, Modern Day Prophets Movement, The Mother
Mary cult, The Goddess Cult, David Koresh, The Hour of Power, and many many
others. They are springing up every day fulfilling what the Bible predicted
that in the later times, many false prophets will arise and decieve many. The
same tactics used by such cults are being used by Replacement Theology
advocates.
From Mat 8, one can see that Christ will rule
the earth were all believers Jew and Gentile will be with him while the rest of
the unbelieving world will be cast out. The believers will rule the world and
Christ will have His seat. The Subjects of the kingdom are by no means the Jews
of Israel, but all the unbelievers in the world as described in Matt 13:38:
"The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom;
but the tares are the children of the wicked one".
The good seed are the
"Children of The Kingdom" from the "field" which is
"the world".
While the Kingdom of Heaven
has nothing to do with regathering the children of Jacob(Israel) yet they
attempt to match them since both gatherings are from the east and the west.
This kingdom will come as
Zecharia predicted in his vision of the messianic era, foretold that in the end
of days,
"It shall come to pass
that every one that is left of all nations that came against Jerusalem, shall
go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the
Feast of Tabernacles." (Zechariah 14:16-21)
They are getting ready
several thousand Christians go up annually to Jerusalem to worship the King, in
1996, during the Jewish Succot more than 5000 such pilgrims participated, from
more than 100 gentile nations.
In light of many
interpretations to do away with Israel, Replacement Theology advocates prefer
to interpret the prophecies of Israel's return were fulfilled already after the
Jews came from the Babylonian captivity. Studying Joel chapter 3, facts are
that:
- The Jews were never
disbursed throughout every nation until the Diaspora.
- Currently and since the
early twentieth century they have been brought back to Israel from every corner
of the glob, and almost half of the world's Jews are in Israel.
- Jerusalem today is
Israel's capital " I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem",
what is left of this strange godly declaration is that on Christ's second
coming, there will be a judgment of the nations for disbursing the Jews and for
DIVIDING Israel with her enemies.
On page 124 of "Whose
Promised Land", by Colin Chapman the author emphasise on the title
"The Meek...will inherit the Earth", the author forces a
re-translation to one of the meanings for the greek word (ge'en) to
"land". Even if this is accepted it still not specific of Israel, and
while it is obvious that this re-translation is intended to make the Bible fit
the Replacement Theology doctrine, however, this is invalid in light of the
rest of scripture which clearly make Israel a non-Gentile rule of the land ,
especially when there will be a rule of the whole world from Israel at the time
of Messiah's rule. Other attempts are made by the author to discredit the
"Israel" rule
▲
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY - WHO IS "ISRAEL OF GOD"?
The Replacement Theology
opinion expressed in Maseehi's website as well as Al-Bushra and Al-Sabeel often
refers to the term "Israel of God" which is only found in Galatians
6:16, where Paul writes: "Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule even
to the Israel of God". From this verse, it is argued that Paul, writing to
the churches in Galatia, was saying that the Church could now take upon itself
a title that had solely belonged to the Jewish people which is contrary to what
Paul was saying, when clearly Paul wrote in the previous verse
"Neither circumcision,
nor un-circumcision means anything, what counts is a new creation".
As to which group this
might apply, there are possibly five candidates mentioned by Paul in this
letter:
Gentile Christians tempted
to desert to a different gospel(l:6ff)
the Church of God (1:13)
the Gentiles to whom Paul was
called to preach (2:7)
the Jewish circumcision
believers(2:11-13), and
the Jewish circumcision
party (2:11-13).
By process of elimination,
the "Israel of God" cannot refer to the Gentile believers, tempted by
the circumcision party, because it is to them that Paul is warning about being
pressured to be circumcised, the "you" in (6:11,12,13).
So Paul is not calling them
the "Israel of God" as they must be a different group to these
"foolish Galatians". Nor is he referring to the circumcision party
themselves. He has already addressed them as "those who want to make a
good impression" (6:12). We can rule out the Gentiles to whom Paul goes
with the Gospel. Circumcision is of no relevance to them. Does, therefore,
"even the "Israel of God" mean "the Church of God",
the title that Paul employed in 1:13?
Remember that the letter is
written "to the churches in Galatia", made up of Jewish and Gentile
believers. But the whole thrust of the letter is to expose the folly within the
Church. (3:1) of the Galatian Christians being persuaded by the Judaising party
(2:12) that they should be circumcised. In order to be righteous(6:12-13).
Why then expose their
folly, and then confuse the whole situation by calling the Gentile dominated
church in Galatia "the Israel of God"?
He was condemning Israel as
being "in slavery with her children". Why confuse the church that he
labored so hard for (4:11), by trading one clear collective noun
"Israel", that of a distinctive ethnic group of people, for the
Christian Church, which is distinctly not the nation of Israel?
There is one other problem
in transferring Israel's title upon the Church from this passage and it is the
word "even". "...even to the Israel of God." (6:16)
The Greek word is
"kai" and is usually translated "and". Thus it would read,
"Peace and mercy to
all who follow this rule...(eg, all you Gentiles who resist the pressure to be
circumcised to obtain righteous) and to the Israel of God", a different
group top those targeted by the circumcision party. This is how the AV, RV,
Douay, NEB, and NASB translate "kai".
We have seen that Paul
addresses Gentiles in this passage as "you". We dismiss the title in
question as referring to "the Church" for the above reasons.
Believing Jews needed to hear this rule also since they had already been
circumcised and might also be tempted to see that it provided for them a
righteousness based on the Jewish law. It makes much more sense, therefore, to
see that Paul refers to them in 6:16 as "the Israel of God" who are
the believing remnant of Israel, to which Peter and Barnabas belonged (1:11-13)
and who themselves had been led astray (2:11-13). They were "of
Israel" and also "of God".
This is the only reference
to this title, and a basic rule of sound exegesis is that doctrine is
developed, not from a single text (as this is) but from the broad teaching of
Scripture.
If we were to try replacing
the term "Israel" anywhere else in the New Testament by the term
"Church", the context would make no sense.
The Amplified Bible cross
references this verse with Psalm 125:5, "Peace be upon Israel".
Again, to replace the term "Israel" in the Hebrew Scriptures
(sometimes known as the Old Testament) with "The Church "makes
nonsense in almost every context.
Thus by calling the Church
the "Israel of God", we might infer that God is now working only with
the Church and that we can replace Israel and say that all the promises that
relate to Israel now belong to the Church. How can we understand Ezekiel
36:8-12 where we read:
"But ye, O mountains of
Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people
of Israel....Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people,
Israel" (vv. 8, 12).
Is this not clearly a
prophecy on Israel? Wasn't Israel's land replenished? Aren't the Jews walking
on her and enjoying one of the best cultivated lands in the Middle East? What
Church mountains will shoot forth branches and have men walk upon her including
the church?
Part of Christianity has
expressed delight with the modern Israel, while part has been very negative
toward Israel's very existence.
The word "Israel"
or "Israelites" occurs about 75 times in the New Testament. In at
least 70 of these occurrences the name Israel is used in precisely the same way
as it was in the Old Testament. This includes nine distinct quotations of Old
Testament Scriptures. In every one of these New Testament quotations, the
meaning of the name Israel is exactly the same as it was in the Old Testament.
In perhaps four instances
in the New Testament, the apostle Paul uses "Israel" in a special,
restricted sense to denote only those Israelites who have continued in the
faith of their forefather Abraham and for this reason have acknowledged Jesus
as their messiah (see Romans 9:6-8), but never once in the New testament is
Israel used as a synonym for the Church as a whole. In Romans 11:25-26 Paul
sums up his analysis of the relationship between Israel and the Gentiles in one
comprehensive statement: "Hardening in part has happened to Israel until
the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be
saved."
▲
WHO WANTED TO KILL WHO?
Palestinian opinion:
"I agree that Christ
was a Jew, so was his Mother, so were the Apostles, the Prophets and a lot of
many good people. But does that give them the right to take our land, kill our
people and treat us like trash?".
While it was Islam and the
Arabs from history past until now have been showing great amount of aggression
towards the Jews. Israel's response to Islamic and Arab aggression and the
results of Israel defending itself is also condemned by pointing to the
aftermaths of every encounter were the Arabs turned out to be the loosing
party.
The Bible in Psalm 83
predicted just that, it specified the very people who will come as a
confederacy against Israel, and it specified the outcome of the battles as
well. The Bible again and again proves to be so accurate, yet even Christian
Arabs still are in denial mode as to credit the victory to God being on
Israel's side. The Arabs have a saying "The looser always has an
excuse", so they will rant and complain and make up all kind of excuses
for there downfall.
In Psalm 83 verse 16 - 18
God said: "Fill their faces with dishonor, that they may seek Thy name O
Lord, Let them be dismayed forever; And let them be ashamed and dismayed
forever; And let them humiliated and perish, That they may know that Thou
alone, whose name is the Lord, Art the Most High over all the earth".
Instead of witnessing to
the loosing Arabs as to why they lost people continue the hate and Anti-Israel
propaganda. God promised Israel a final re-gathering in which He declared
"and they shall not be pulled up" (Jer 24:6). We must never witness
and water down God's Word to please others. Serious error does not produce
sound doctrine.
During both wars, 1948, and
the Six Days War, the Arab leaders promised the Palestinians that they would
soon be able to return following Israel's destruction. In some cases the Jews,
including Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, urged the Arabs to remain,
promising that they would not be harmed, (Irving Howe and Carl Gershman,
Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (New York: Bantam, 1972, p. 168).
Those who remained became
full and equal citizens of Israel, while those who chose to leave went to neighboring
Arab states. Instead of welcoming their Arab brothers, and integrating them
into the mainstream of their societies, the Arab states kept them in squali
refugee camps and used these Palestinians refugees as political pawns in their
fight against Israel, (See, for instance, The Economist, Oct. 2, 1948, for a
description of Jewish efforts in Haifa to persuade the Arabs to stay. ).
Israel is also blamed for
creating the Refugee problem which was created by the Arabs who insisted on
keeping the camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, using the Palestinians for
political exploitation. In 1982: 65,425 Palestinian refugees put in camps in
Syria, 123,442 in Lebanon, 192,392 in Jordan, this was reported by UNRWA, while
the Arabic propaganda lied and inflated the number to 4,000,000, and ALL who
fled on their own will and without any force.
The Jews on the other hand
were forced to leave, arrived destitute, but they were absorbed into the
society and became an integral part of the state. In effect, then, a veritable
exchange of populations took place between Arab and Jewish refugees. Thus the
Jewish refugees became full Israeli citizens while the Arab refugees remained
"refugees" according to the wishes of the Arab leaders.
The Arabs not only rejected
partition, but attacked Israel from all sides. On the day that Israel declared
its independence, the Arab League Secretary, General Azzam Pasha declared
"Jihad", a holy war. He said, "This will be a war of
extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the
Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".( Howard M Sachar, A History of
Israel New York: Knopf, 1979, p. 333. 1).
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY - WHO SHOULD INTERPRET IT
Maseehi argues: "As
for the prophecies in the Bible, again, according to whose interpretation? Your
private interpretation, remember that "no prophecy of the scripture is of
any private interpretation [2 Peter 1:20]".
The statement is in
contradiction in itself. If an interpretation of the verse is given by Maseehi
that this verse means that regular folk must not interpret scripture, that it
is not of anyone's "private interpretation", yet he himself
interprets this verse his own way to mean that we must not interpret them
privately.
I wish that Maseehi
continued so we can see the context of this verse: "For no prophecy was
ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from
God" (2 Pet 1:21).
Since I disagree with
Maseehi's statement, I am free to refer to Matthew Henry's "The gospel
also are foretold by the prophets and penmen of the Old Testament, who spake
and wrote under influence, and according to the direction of the Spirit of
God.". This is simply saying that scripture was not made by man but from
God.
Instead of Maseehi
responding to verses showing Israel's rights to the land, he tried to find a
way by taking a verse out of context in order to refute all the clear
prophecies in scripture. Quick fixes to his lack of knowledge of scripture. If
Maseehi really believes his absurd interpretation then what interpretation does
he or should he follow? The verse does not say to follow the 'majority'
interpretation, yet the Bible was written to be understood by everyone who
reads it in plain form.
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY - IF ONLY THE WORLD CAN SEE
The Bible, God's message to
the World. It speaks of man's origin and man's destiny, yet only a few ever
head to it and listen to the voice of God. Prophecy in general is ignored,
especially since it speaks of the most hated people on Earth, the Jews. The
Bible even predicted that the Jews will be the most hated people on Earth. No
wonder why many ignore biblical prophecy.
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY – THE GOLDEN GATE – IS IT JUST A GATE?
- The Eastern Gate sealed
predicted by Ezekiel
Ezekiel 44:1-3; "Then
He brought me back to the outer gate which faces toward
the east, but it was shut.
And the Lord said to me, This gate shall be shut;
it shall not be opened, and
no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of
Israel has entered by it;
therefore it shall be shut. ".
If anyone refers to the
chapter will find that the verse is speaking of the Temple mount in Jerusalem,
so an exact location can be verified.
The sealed Eastern Golden
Gate can also be found on Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the eastern
side of it, it is sealed and the Muslims could never re-open it.
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY - ISRAEL - BY DIVINE RIGHT
Biblically understood
Zionism is simply the return, or the various returns, of the Jewish people to
Zion, to the land of Israel; to the land promised by God to Abraham and his
descendants forever. These promises are sprinkled throughout the whole of
Scripture, but we find the first one in Genesis 12:1-3; enlarged by Genesis
15:7: "God said unto Abraham, I am the LORD who brought you out of the
land of Ur of the Chaldees to give this land to you to inherit it. And Abraham
said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?
Then God makes a covenant
with Abraham through the sacrificial system, and in verse 13 He said to
Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs (that is Egypt) and shall serve them and they shall afflict you
there four hundred. But in the fourth generation you shall come out for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." The Amorites being the then
residents of the land that was to become the Promised Land. Genesis 15:18-21,
"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abraham saying unto thy
seed have I given this land from the River of Egypt unto the great river, the
River Euphrates." And then He indicates who is going to be moving out: the
Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the
Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. And
that last one is of particular interest, because the Jebusites occupied the
city of Jebus which later became Jerusalem itself. Now that, of course, is not
the only scripture, but that is the one we will use now. So Zionism is the
working out in flesh and blood right here on planet Earth of God's promise to
Abraham. The promise depending more on the faithfulness of God than on the
faithfulness of Abraham and his descendants.
Because of that covenant
that God made with Abraham, the Jews came out of Egypt four hundred years later
as promised by God. They went down into Egypt as seventy people. They came out,
according to the Bible, six hundred thousand men plus women plus children; that
was called the Exodus.
After the first Jewish
captivity in Babylon about 600 B.C. the Persian leader Cyrus allowed the Jewish
people to return to rebuild Jerusalem and reestablish their religion. So that
would be the first application of Zionism. The first return of the Jewish
people to the Promised Land some 530 years before the time of Christ. Then, of
course, we had World War I and World War II and that terrible thing called the
Holocaust, and then in 1948 A.D. we had the beginning of the return of the Jews
out of all the nations of the earth to the modern State of Israel. So Zionism
is the return of the Jewish people to the land promised to the patriarchs according
to Scripture. That is Zionism properly understood.
Israel's rebirth Jer 29:14,
Jer 12:14-15 Jer 16:14-15 Jer 31:8, Ezekiel 11:17
Zec 8:8 Isaiah 27:6 Joel
3:1-2 and many man more
Look how clear is the
prophecy:
"Therefore say,
"Thus says the Lord God: "I will gather you from the peoples,
assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give
you the land of Israel.". (Ezekiel 11:17).
Fulfillment: Proof is not
even neccesary
Chances: 1 in millions
Why: Never a nation in history
was disbursed cast througout the entire golb and regathered.
Even Jerusalem will become
the central city for Israel
"I will bring them
back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They
shall be My people and I
will be their God, in truth and righteousness.".
(Zechariah 8:8) the
"BIRTH of ISRAEL" in your Bible.Thus says the Lord: "Against all
My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people to
inherit -- behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house
of Judah from among them. "Then it shall be, after I have plucked them
out, that I will have compassion on them and bring them back everyone to his
heritage and everyone to his land." (Jeremiah 12:14-15).
"Therefore behold, the
days are coming says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord lives
who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but The Lord
lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from
all the lands where He had driven them. For I will bring them back into their
land which I gave to their fathers." (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
The great exodus from Egypt
in the time of Moses is small compared to the regathering of the Jewish people from
all over the world. The mighty God of Israel is still bringing them from
all the lands and from the land of the north(former Soviet Union). This
reference of the land of the north is also refered to by the prophet Jeremiah;
"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather
It is a mockery to God when
man by his foolish pride dictate how God His maker should operate the world,
and how to write His Bible, it is He who chooses the way He wants to be honored
through. The following prophecies are so simple to understand, that they needed
no interpretation for anyone who whitnesses the recent historical events on
Israel
HERE IS A GOOD EXAMPLE:
" I will bring them from
the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman
with child together: a great company shall return thither." (Jeremiah
31:8).
Mr. Yoel: WHEN DID THIS
HAPPEN IN THE PAST...HA ? (Walid arguing loudley)
The ship loads from the
seas coming to Israel, from ALL CORNERS OF THE WORLD as the Bible says.
The great outpouring of
Jews from Russia(far north of Israel) to the promised land is one of the most
exciting events God made for His people. Russia has persecuted the Jews since
the time of the Czars until the recent breakup of the Soviet Empire.
Is. 35:10 "And the
redeemed of the LORD shall RETURN and come with singing unto ZION and
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Until now this has not been
fulfilled because the joy of returning has never lasted. The people have been
driven out.
Jer. 16:14 "Therefore,
behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, "the
LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt';
but, 'the LORD liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the
north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them', and I will bring
them again into their land that I have to their fathers." Surely this word
did already apply to the return from Babylon as originally intended, but the
phrase "from all the lands" and the present dramatic return from the
north fit even more precisely.
Amos 9:14-15 "'And I
will RETURN My people Israel out of captivity, and they will rebuild the waste
cities and inhabit them, and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall
never again be plucked up out of their land which I have given them' says the
LORD your GOD." This prophecy has never yet been fulfilled because until
now the people have always been driven out.
In Acts 10 we read of the
acceptance of non-Jews into the family of believers. The very first non-Jew was
a particularly hard case to swallow, an officer of the pagan Roman occupation
army, Cornelius, and his family. Yet, after intense discussion among the all
Jewish followers of Jesus, this expansion was accepted graciously and with a
spirit of amazement at God's generosity.
In the Hebrew Bible there
are stories of conquered enemies being killed and stories of conquered enemies
being fed and freed. Israelis have almost without exception followed the second
alternative.
In the Synoptic Gospels the
chief use of the word Jews is in reference to Jesus as "King of the
Jews" - with only three exceptions.
"Fear not, O Jacob My
servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the
nations to which I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you, but
correct you in measure, yet I will not leave you wholly unpunished" (Jer.
46:28).
▲
THE COMING ISLAMIC INVASION (EZEKIEL 38)
The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, citing ancient
Assyrian writings, places the location of Magog in the land mass between ancient Armenia
and Media--in short, the Republics south of Russia and north of Israel, comprised of
Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Chechnya, Turkey, Iran and Tajikstan. Significantly
all of them Moslem nations.
Other nations mentioned in this prophecy include:
| CUSH | - Which are today Sudan. |
| PUT or PHUT | - Which are today North Africa (Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia,
Algeria, Mauritania) |
| CUSH | - Sudan |
| TOGARMAH | - The Turkic Tribes and Central Asia (Turkey, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Tadjikistan) |
So the enemies of God and Israel mentioned in Ezekiel 38 covers Persia, Sudan(Cush),
Northern Africa(Phut, Lybia, Morroco, Tunisia, Algeria) which will soon be allies with the
C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States or Southern Russia).
These today are the main part of the Ottoman Muslim Empire and covers the ancient Grecian
Empire as well. The Ottoman Empire was a beast that replaced the Roman Empire after
defeating the Eastern Roman Empire. The Ottoman Empire is probably the wounded beast
which the world will marvel since the wound was "healed".
The land mass of the Grecian Empire is also supported in Scripture:
"When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons,
O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. 14 AND the
LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord
GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. 15The LORD of hosts
shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall
drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the
corners of the altar. 16And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of
his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his
land. [Zech 9:13-16]
This passage is also regarding Messiahs second coming to rescue Israel from
the peoples who come from the land mass of the Grecian Empire as supported in Revelation:
Revelation 13:2 seems to narrow the scope to a Grecian Empire which
already encompassed the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires:
"And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and
its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and
great authority."
Obviously the leopard is the Grecian empire(Daniel 7:6) and exactly as Gabriel interpreted
it in Daniel 8 where the vision of the ram and goat is given as foretelling the struggle
between Media-Persia and Alexanders Greece. The Lion is Babylon, and the Bear is
Medo-Persia which already was part of the Leopard (Greece).
After the death of Alexander the Great in the night of 10/11 June 323
BCE, his empire was divided by his generals. One of the successors was his friend
Seleucus, who became king of the eastern provinces - more or less modern Afghanistan,
Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, together with parts of Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, and Tajikstan His kingdom had two capitals, which he founded c.300: Antioch in
Syria and Seleucia in Iraq. Babylon was a third important city. The empire was, like the
empire of Alexander, actually the continuation of the empires before: Persia, Babylonia
and Assyria."
In fact, Daniel 11:5-20 is a broad sketch of post-Grecian Empire
history [Daniel 11:2-4] which leads right up to the time of the Antichrist ("Little
Horn") in Daniel 11:21. And since He is going south(Daniel 8:9), he must be coming
from the north parts, exactly as specified in Ezekiel 38.
Antiochus in Daniel 8 is the forerunner of the final Antichrist
linking him to the Seleucid Grecian Empire(which Antiochos Epiphines was a type) rather
then the "Prince to come" in Daniel 9:26. We MUST then conclude that since
"The prince who is to come" in Daniel 11 was NEVER referred to by any other
prophecy, so it must be crucial to accept that Antichrist must come from the Grecian
dominion as predicted by Christ Himself. Daniel's 69 weeks is completely fulfilled with no
connection in the passage or chapter to this "prince to come" to the final
remanding week since it was preserved by Christ for the little horn referred to in Daniel
8 and 11.
Also, in Daniel 11 and Matthew 24 the Temple is desecrated not
destroyed, yet the Daniel 9 its completely destroyed as predicted by Christ in
Matthew 24. So the "prince" of Daniel 9, is NOT the same as the "little
horn" of Daniel 8 and 11.
Then we have Johns confirmation in Revelation 17 that indeed the
seventh kingdom which will ultimately be also an eighth which will come at the end:
"Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven
mountains on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings".
Now, with a little inductive research on the meaning of
"mountain" we can find that it is another way of looking at an empire as
described in Jeremiah 51:25 predicting the Babylonian Empires destruction: "Behold, I am against you, O destroying MOUNTAIN" and Daniels
depiction of Messiahs kingdom or Empire in Daniel 2:35 "stone
that smote the image became a great mountain".
With this in mind, let us take a close look at what John is actually saying:
"So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I
saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven
heads and ten horns. Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven
mountains[empires] on which the woman sits. (Revelation 17: 3, 9).
The seven Mountains here ties with the 10 kings. So the angel is clearly referring to 7
kingdoms that occur over a span of time: past, present and future. At the time the angel
was speaking this to John, he says that 5 of the kingdoms had "fallen". These
are kingdoms that had arisen and fallen before Johns time. The angel says that one
is. In other words, the sixth kingdom the angel is referring to is in power in Johns
time, even as the angel is saying this to John. Then the angel says "the other has
not yet come", telling John that the 7th kingdom is a future kingdom.
Finally, the angel directly addresses the identity and kingdom ancestry of the last-days
Beast power. The angel says that the seventh "is himself also an eighth, and is of
the seven". What does this mean?
The first empire to control the Middle East was the Old Babylonian Empire.
The second empire to control the Middle East was the Assyrian Empire.
The third empire to control the Middle East was the New Babylonian Empire.
The fourth empire to control the Middle East was the Persian Empire.
The fifth empire to control the area of the Middle East was the Grecian Empire.
These five empires are the "five (that) have fallen" at the time of John.
The sixth empire to control the area of the Middle East was the Roman Empire(as clearly
identified by the angel in Revelation), which during Johns time (approximately 100
AD) was at the height of its power. The seventh empire to control the area of the
Middle East was the Muslim Ottoman Empire which ended the Roman after it moved eastwards
to rule from Constantinople after its western part ended in Rome. In fact Turkey is
the heart of the land of Magog spoken by Ezekiel in chapter 38.
Ezekiel 38 could very well include Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Turkey, Chechnya, Azerbijan, Girgistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Bosnia, and
Psalm 83 which is a continuation of the Arab Israeli wars could include Egypt, Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Iraq.
Psalm 83 started in the Arab-Israeli wars and is not completed, since verse 18 "Let
them know that you, whose name is the LORD - that you alone are the Most High over all the
earth" has not been fulfilled.
Some say that this beast is Satan who will be shot and revived, so he
is not at the time when John was writing, and we ask: was Satan ruling before and stopped
at the time of John, and later he will take control again? It will not fit in this context
at all. This indeed sounds absurd, Scripture states of the beast that "The BEAST
which was and is not" in verse 11 which describes the Grecian parts which will revive
at the time of the seventh and eighth kingdoms.
Others also identify the EU(European Union) as the end times revival. This could not be
true since today we have 15 nations with none coming from the eastern Roman Empire. For
the EU to fit this puzzle it is mandatory by the very scholars who propagate this theory
that five nations from the east and five from the west. While all the 15 EU nations today
are all in the west and many of which were not even part of any empire in the past. This
indeed is a major obstacle to this thread of interpretation. In fact, many who claim
authority in interpreting end-times like Hal Lindsey, Grand Jeffry, Jack Van Impe, Chuck
Smith, and Par Robertson were proven wrong with many of these assumptions. These men even
went as far as setting dates basing "the fig tree" being Israel and
"generation" being 40 years to set false dates which came to pass.
Then we have other scholars who insist that usage of "the whole
earth" or "every nation" in the Bible when speaking on end-times pertains
literally to the entire glob. If one searches all Scripture for past empires that ruled,
one would find the same usage, yet none ruled literally the whole earth, every nation, or
was used to encompass the glob Genesis 41:57, 1 Kings 10:24, Daniel 8:5, 21, 22,
Daniel 2:32-34,37,38,39, Daniel 2:39-44, Daniel 7:3,23-27,11-14, Jeremiah 27:7, Romans
1:8, Colossians 1:5,6, Acts 19:27, Acts 24:5, Luke 2:1, John 12:19)
In fact, every verse in Scripture(Old and New Testaments) where nations
or peoples are mentioned and curses occur within end-times, they are all
Islamic nations today. This is a major issue no serious scholar can refute:
Ezek. 35:3,-S; 10,12; 36: 2,3,5
Ezek 38
Psalm 83
Amos 1:12, Jer 49:13 Isaiah 63
Jer. 5O:4-6, 11,18-19; Isa 13:1-14:2
Obad. 1:20; Zech. 10:10; 11:1
Isaiah 11:14
Isaiah 31
Isaiah 34
Micah 5 (see verse 5)
Obad. 1:19
All minor prophets speak on none else then the Islamic world. Yet, many
went on with trying to make Scripture fit by focusing all the energy to interpret the
nations from the allegoric verses without heading to the specific names and all the
details of names and nations mentioned by name.
In summary, Scripture clearly mentions that this end-times entity will
be both a religious and political governmental system combined. Indeed Islam today fits
this description. In fact the Bible dedicates a city where this system comes from. This
city(Mystery Babylon) as described in Revelation 17:
"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies".
It is obvious that the word "fornication" has always been
used to equate anyone following a false religion which brings nothing but everlasting
wrath. Today all leaders of the glob dare say anything against Islam since "the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies". No
one can argue that oil (delicacies) have literally been a key factor in most of the
political games. This city also lives in Luxury:
"How much she hath glorified herself, and lived in luxury".
(Revelation 18:7)
The Royalty of Saudi Arabia are well known for their luxury.
Then comes the breaking verse:
"And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for
no one buys their merchandise anymore(Revelation 18:11)
If Rome was destroyed, Istanbul, New York or any other city, it would
not affect as much as Saudi Arabia since Middle East oil plays the major card in world
trade for this verse literally says that no one will buy the merchants merchandise
anymore. How else could anyone transport it without oil. The question becomes what
city or country, if destroyed will stop shipping?
This city also persecutes the faithful (Rev 17:6) and today there is no
place on earth that persecutes Christians like Saudi Arabia. Not one church or
congregation is allowed to gather in worship. The strictest rule of the Sharia Law is
imposed. Conversion to Christianity invoked beheading, exactly as described in the
Scripture: "and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus(Revelation 20:4). While beheading was not how Protestants died at the hands of
Catholics in Rome, yet Islamic Sharia law demands it. In fact, the Anti-Christ in the
Bible is described as one who changes times and laws, exactly what Islamic legislation
demands when anyone is conquered or converted. The AD system is abolished to the
"Hijerah" and laws are changed to "Sharia Islamic law".
Finally the Hebrew prophet Yochannan(John) ends the argument regarding
the spirit of Anti-Christ:
"Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." (I John 4:3).
No one fits this more then Muslims. Catholics do not deny Father or
Son, majority of Jews today deny that Jesus is the Messiah but not God being a Father. Yet
every Muslim on the face of the glob seems to deny the most that God is a Father or that
He had a Son.
Muslims are awaiting such person who brings peace. Ibn Khaldun's al-Maqqadima stated:
"...There will come forth a man from my nation who will talk according to my Sunnah.
God will send upon him rain from heaven, and the earth will sprout forth for him its
blessing. The earth will be filled through him with equity and justice, as it his been
filled with injustice and crime. He will direct the affairs of this nation for seven
years, and he will settle in Jerusalem."
The Mahdi of Islam has the same descriptions as the Anti-Christ for Jews and Christians.
They are perfectly set up to the worlds greatest deceiver Gog.
For a detailed discussion of this issue, see my article
Islam and the Final Beast.
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY - AN AMAZING PROPHECY – TYRE
"For thus says Yahweh
God: "Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, and with horsemen, and
an army with many people. He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in
the fields; he will heap a siege mound against you, build a wall against you,
and raise a defense against you. He will direct his battering rams against your
walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. Because of the
abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at
the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your
gates, as men enter a city that has been breached. With the hooves of his
horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword,
and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. They will plunder your riches and
pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your
pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the
midst of the water. I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound
of your harps shall be heard no more. I will make you like the top of a rock;
you shall be a place for spreading nets, you shall never be rebuilt, for I
Yahweh have spoken" (Ezek 26:3-14).
The facts:
Nebuchadnezzar took the
mainland city and passed by the island city as he laid the mainland city waste
three years after the prophecy. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
"After 13 year siege(585-573 B.C) Nebuchadnezzar II, Tyre made terms and
aknowledged Babylonian suzerainty.
When he broke the gates
down, he found the city almost empty. The majority of the people have moved by
ship to an island about 1/2 a mile off the coasts and fortified a city there.
The mainland city was destroyed in 573, but the city of Tyre remained a
powerfull city for several hundred years.
Alexander later also
attacked Tyre and possesing no fleat, he demolished old Tyre, on the mainland,
and with the debris built a mole 200 feet across the straits seperating the old
and new towns, erecting towers and war engines at the further end.
The old city of Tyre did
supply stones and dirt to build the causeway(Loeb Classical Library:Quintius
Curtius IV, 2. 18-19).
Tyre was one city devided
between the mainland from the Alcatraz-like Island fortress and the causeway
which still remains as Philip Myers who was a secular historian and not a
theologian stated: "uniting the rock with the mainland.".
When the city at last was
taken after a 7 month siege 8000 of the inhabitants were slained and 30,000
sold into slavery.
Mr. Myers also wrote:
"Allexander the great reduced the city to ruins(332 B.C). She recovered in
a measure from this blow but never regained the place she had previously held
in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is now bare as
a top of a rock, a place where the fisherman that still frequent the spot
spread there nets to dry.".
John C. Beck also wrote:
"The history of Tyre does not stop after the conquest of Alexader. Men
continue to rebuild her and armies continue to besiege her walls untill
finally, after 1600 years, she falls NEVER to be rebuilt again.".
Joseph Michaud writes
concerning The Muslims destroying Tyre: "There houses, their temples, the
monuments of there piety, their valour and their industry, everything was
condemned to perish with them by the sword or by fire.".
LeStrange quotes Abu'lfiela
(1321 A.D): "The city was reqonquered by the Moslems in 690 (1291), ...and
then was laid in ruins, as it remains down to the present day".
Today Tyre is a place of
fishi and the laying of fish nets.
Nina Jidejian writes:
"The Sidonian port of Tyre is still in use today. Small fishing vessels
lay at anchor there. An examination of the foundations reveals granite columns
of the Roman period which were incorporated as binders in the walls bythe
Crusaders. The port has become a haven today for fishing boats and a place for
spreading nets."
The existance of a small
fishing village Tyre, the mistress of the seas, the trade and commercial center
of the world for centuries, past away NEVER to rise(re-build) again. The
fishermen drying thier nets upon the rocks that once formed the foundation of
that ancient metropolis are the last link in the chain of prophecy that Ezekiel
gave over 25 hundred years ago."
She concludes: "Tyres
stones may be found as far away as Acre and Beirut. Yet evidences of a great
past are abundant and recent excavations have revealed successive levels of
this proud Pheonician seaport...The great ancient city of Tyre lay burried
under accumilated debris. The ruins of an aqueduct and a few scattered columns
and the ruins of a christian basilica were the only remains found above
ground....looking down into the water one can see a mass of granite columns and
stone blocks strewn over the sea bottom. Until recently the ruins of Tyre above
water were few."
Old Tyre today stands as it
has for twenty five centuries, a bare rock, uninhabited by man. Although it is
still an excellent site for a city and would have free water enough for a large
modern city, yet it has never been rebuilt even though it has fresh springs
producing 10 million gallons of fresh water daily.
The city was never rebuilt
again.
Tyre was destroyed in 1291
and then it died forever and never was rebuilt.
Hans-Wolf Rackl, in
Archeology underwater notes: "Today hardly a single stone of the old Tyre
is intact.".
It could be argued that
there is a city of Tyre today, yet this city is not the original city of Tyre,
but it is built down the coast from the original site of Tyre. The fact that
there is a small fishermen village nearby only confirms that there is a need of
someone to fish and dry their nets.
Also is argued that the
prophecy was written after the events occured when Alexander destroyed the
city, yet this argument is invalid since the Muslims completed the prophecy and
literaly destroyed everything to the point it became a bare rock and never was
rebuilt after that.
▲
WHO CAUSES DIVISION?
Argument:
"Christian supporters
of Israel advocate division."
For example, Maseehi
advocates unity over division when God clearly desires division between wheat
and tares, he states: "Usually the person who causes division is the
person who comes at a later date with a new opinion which the majority never
held to. With all due respect, your views are the new later views thus you
cannot say that the earlier views which most Christians adhere too are the
views causing division.".
Response: Martin Luther in
the Reformation when he advocated for Salvation by Faith and not by works has
caused division. A division which was healthy in order to rescue people from
bondage. Was Martin Luther wrong? In Maseehi's way of analysis yes.
The earliest views on
Israel is clear, Paul, Peter, and all the apostles clearly wrote and spoke that
God is on the side of Israel. If one man "Martin Luther" who fought
the many and was right, thus one cannot say that views of majority is correct.
The facts are that the originators of Replacement Theology agree with Christian
Zionists that the New Testament apostles believed in a future for Israel and
the literal Second Coming of Christ - but they say the apostles were just
mistaken! It took time for the Church to "mature" to the knowledge
that Israel was to be replaced by the Church. Anyone with the right mind
reading scripture would see how absurd Replacement Theology is, regardless to
how many follow it. God throughout the ages has used a few to fulfill His
plans. He used Daniel, Moses, Ester, a handful of 12 Apostles, and 12 tribes of
Israel to show His will. Whether we like it or not, God uses the minority.
Instead of accusing me of
causing division Maseehi needs to study the ones who caused division and still
do who were the persecutors of the Church, Rome who infiltrated the church and
currently riding a beast with other cults all the way to damnation.
Maseehi concludes his
argument: "As for Arabs who hold the points of view like yours, they have
history and the majority of Christians (especially Arab ones) against
them.".
Response: Amen, a healthy
division from your promotions of evil is good for me. Maseehi refuses to
question George Habbash's Christianity, he calls him and others " freedom
fighters" knowing that George Habbash a murderer of Jewish children who
leads The Popular Front To Liberate Palestine(PLFP) guided by Marxism-Leninism,
together with other leftwing Palestinian organizations struggling to build a
working-class party in Palestine. I see no difference in goals between Maseehi,
a member of Hammas or the PLO. Maseehi without hesitation declares: "As
for you doubting the Christianity of people (like George Habash or Hanaan Ashrawi),
I wouldn't do that if I were you. Only God knows what every person believes in
his heart. You call them terrorists, I call some of them freedom
fighters.".
Response: While Maseehi is
partially correct, that no one can know what is in a person's heart, however,
one can judge the words and actions that come out of the heart. We all can find
out the words and actions of such folk like George Habbash, a murderer and a
terrorists , there is no need to quote the volumes of criminal acts committed
by this man. Jesus said: "You will know them by their fruits". What
fruit of peace ever came out of Habbash, Arafat, or any terrorist?
▲
WHAT IS MEANT BY ‘CHOSEN PEOPLE’?
Are the Jews superior? This
is the question always asked as an accusation by anti-Israel people. The Bible
is clear, in Ezekiel 36:
23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall
know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you
before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you
out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers;
and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will
call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase
of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the
heathen.
31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings
that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your
iniquities and for your abominations.
32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known
unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have
cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the
cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay
desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become
like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are
become fenced, and are inhabited.
36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know
that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I
the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of
by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a
flock.
38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn
feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall
know that I am the LORD.
"I have loved you with
an everlasting love..." Jeremiah 31:3.
"O descendants of
Israel his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the LORD our G-d;
his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant 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..." 1Chronicles 16:13-17.
God's promises to Israel is
to "glorify His great name". They have been chosen for a divine
purpose, to the end that one day the entire created universe will proclaim the
greatness of the Lord, not designated as superior, but His chosen vessel to
prove His point. Christians as well are not superior, but redeemed, and Israel,
people and land, is His vessel. This glorification of God is done by a
restoration unlike any other, in the past: "And I will multiply upon you
[the land] man and beast, and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will
settle you according to your old estate, and will do better unto you than at
your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am the Lord" (v. 11).
"And the desolate land
shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of
Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fortified, and
are inhabited" (vv. 34-35).
Restoration is always for
the reason of reconciliation with God. Deuteronomy speaks of the reasons for
the desolation of the land and what it conveyed to the nations over the
centuries when Israel, as a nation, was far from God and dispersed among the
nations.
"Even all the nations
shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land?...Then men shall
say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers,
which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of
Egypt" (Dt. 29:24-25).
"And ye shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be
your God." (Ezek 36:28).
Not only Israel will return
to God, but the Gentiles will recognize Israel:
"Then the nations that
are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places,
and plant that which was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do
it."
God, in His faithfulness,
performs what He promises, and His glory, wisdom, and honor are put on display
among the nations that they know He is The Lord.
God sums up the story of
Israel, it's restoration, sanctification, and affirmation, ; " And the
heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity:
because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave
them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According
to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto
them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I
bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of
Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name After that they have borne their
shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when
they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought
them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and
am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations Then shall they know that I
am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the
heathen but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of
them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have
poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD." (Ezek
39:27-29).
▲
TEARS FOR PEACE, NOT LAND FOR PEACE
Maseehi: "For God's
sake! Tears are coming to my eyes just remembering all these massacres[of the
Arabs]. God have mercy on the souls of those martyrs).".
Response: Tears should be
shed for the Jews as well. It is surprizing that one would only cry if he is
victimized, yet not do the same when he victimizes others. Only when evil is
done to us we cry, but not when we do evil unto others, worse then that, to
deny evil alltogether.
It gets to prove my point I
made at the beginning of my research, that is, we will only look at the action,
but never the motive.
The Bible sees no
difference in the Islamic worship of God than even the ancient Babylonians,
they too believed in one God, they tried to reach to that God by there own
works (building a tower), God hated that and punished them swiftly. It is not
the belief in one God that brings people to God, even the devil believes in one
God. You use the word Monotheistic as a reason for God to have patience, well
not so with the Babylonians. Also, the God of the Muslims is not the God of
Israel, The God of Israel is a Trinity, has a Son, and is a Father, far from
Islam's God who is in fact The God of this World The Devil. Are you saying that
Monotheism in "The Devil" pleases God? I hope not.
Huh? You have made several
mistakes here. First of all, where does the Bible say that the people who built
the tower of Babel were monotheistic? Second, where does it say that God hated
that? Third, where does it say that God punished them?
I know that the God of
Israel is the Trinity, but the Jews don't know that! The God of the Jews is
closer to the God of the Muslims than the God of the Christians is.
I didn't mention Monotheism
in the Devil!. view: "Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for a light
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If those
ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also
shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord, If
heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out
beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
done, saith the Lord".
That is how important
Israel is. Any questions?
You're giving me a new
interpretation of what the Lord thus saith which is barely two centuries old.
Israel is important, Christ was a Jew. But now, what is Israel. I will give you
what the Bible says using the interpretation which all Christians have
unanimously agreed upon until the 19th century and which the majority of
Christians today still agree on.
"For he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the
flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of
God." [Romans 2:28,29]
Thus, the Jews after Christ
are Jews only if they are Jews inwardly. You see, after the New Covenant, the
membership to Israel was open to the Gentiles. In other words, the true Israel
are the Christians. This is not "Replacement Theology", it is fulfillment.
The Jews were not removed, but membership was extended to the Gentiles as well.
Your comparison is a bit
off, the Jews were persecuted for 2000 years, and almost completely
annihilated, 6,000,000 at one deal the Holocaust alone. It is also significant
because this extermination never worked and the devil never succeeded. The Jews
also were brought back by God to their land, and were revived as a nation.
These examples you are giving do not have this important significance that God
promised and made clear in the Bible. It also does not relate to our subject.
Apparently you chose to pick and choose from my book without examining the
biblical facts. Do not forget, it was not only Europe who persecuted the Jews,
but our own people (mine as well) in every Arabic and Islamic country, would
you like the facts for that? I can give you volumes on this subject.
The persecution of the Jews
is irrelevant. Some people can see persecution as a sign of being accursed by
God, and others as a sign of being persecuted for their faith in God. In other
words, the Jews are either very faithful or very wrong. Meaning, persecution of
the Jews by people other than Arabs (since we are discussing Arabs now) proves
nothing. By the way, do you know that among the peoples the Jews lived with the
Arab Muslims gave them the best treatment?
You say that: "I
myself do not believe in any replacements", yet you are unintentionally.
Yes you do believe in replacement theology, and it is exactly what you said,
let me quote you:
"If you want to take
it from a Christian perspective, only the Messianic Jews could be classified as
Jews according to the above verse because only the Messianic Jews believe that
Jesus is the Messiah."
That is exactly one of the
definitions of replacement theology, to say that a Jew is only Christians. The
verses that you quote pretain to "Spiritual Jews", yet you confused
the issues of God's promisses to Jews (Physical Israel, Abrahamic Covenant),
with spiritual Jews (believers in Messiah). Please make a point of this as you
study scripture and find out God's promisses to the Jews in the Abrahamic
Covenant.
I'm confusing nothing. What
I'm saying is what historical Christianity says. I believe in what the Catholic
Church teaches regarding this issue. You see, the Catholic Church does not
teach "Replacement Theology". Replacement Theology is the theology
which teaches that the New Covenant replaced the Old one. The Church teaches
that the membership to Israel has been opened to Gentiles; the Jews who believe
in Christ are Israel, the Gentiles who believe in Christ are Israel. The Jews
who do not believe in Christ are not, and the Jews have no advantage whatsoever
over the Gentiles because of their Jewishness. This is what Christians believed
till the 19th century and what the majority still believes today, please keep
that in mind. Your interpretation is a new one and represents only a minority
of Christians.
And then you go on and say:
"From a Jewish
perspective, the Modern State of Israel is definitely NOT a biblical one."
What do you mean by
"Jewish prespective"? Are you following a certain Jewish thought and
slapping it as evidence that they are correct and The Bible is not? I hope I
misunderstood. Israel in The Bible is first brought back in unbelief, and then
their redemption comes. We both agree that Israel does not follow the Messiah,
I have already written in my book. In Ezekiel 39:23-24 the God of the Bible
sums up the story of Israel: "The Gentiles shall know that the house of
Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful
to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their
enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness
and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden
My face from them."
By "from a Jewish
perspective", I mean that many Rabbis believe that the Jews should not
return to Palestine until the Messiah comes, and that the current State of
Israel has no Biblical basis. Some of these Rabbis have said:-
"...if we place all
the immodesty and promiscuity of the generation and the many sins of the world
on one side of the scale, and the Zionist state on the other side of the scale
by itself, it would outweigh them all. Zionism is the greatest form of
spiritual impurity in the entire world. They are polluting the entire world.
They have polluted the Jewish people with their heresy, Heaven help us. It is
no surprise why G-d's anger comes down from heaven. It is necessary to repent
and escape from them more than from a lion who is chasing a person to kill
him." - Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum
"Everything our
blessed rabbis cried out about earlier in the century about the dangers of
Zionism has almost been forgotten! Even my own writings go ignored. Therefore,
should the truth and foundations of our religion be forgotten?" - Rabbi
Joel Teitelbaum
"We consider ourselves
no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a
return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the
restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state." - The
Pittsburgh Platform (A declaration made by Reform Rabbis)
Now it is an incontestable
fact that no Orthodox Jew believes the present State of Israel has come into
being in a process which fulfills the injunctions of the Old Testament. - Rabbi
Elmer Berger
Now, can it be more clear?
There need to be little or no interpretation for these verses, they speak for
themselves. Israel was unfaithful to God, for that they have been paying for
2000 years, they got what they deserved. Israel was their land which God made a
covenant with, and a deal is a deal, especially with God. It does not get
annulled no matter how long ago it was made. They came back, and God is going
to redeem and clean their hearts.
Again, which
interpretation? The one which all Christians believed till the 19th century or
your barely two century old one?
Also keep in mind that
there is not a single reference in The Bible that addresses Israel as
Palestine. Palestine does not exsist in The Bible. God wants the name He chose,
and that He will do and did, despite the effort of making a State of Palestine.
In fact God knows that we will try to divide Israel into two separate states.
He even addresses the issue: "I will also gather all nations, and bring
them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with
them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have
scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land." (Joel
3:1-2). God will cause a final world war just for that reason. Yet you hear so
little about these verses I mentioned in my book, and I wonder why we have
ignored God's words which were written from time immomorial and I ask: For how
long?
▲
BIBLE PROPHECY IGNORANCE - THE DANGER
Argument: "I'm afraid
that you're focusing too much on Bible prophecy. I totally believe that the
Bible has lots of Prophecies in it, but we should not focus on them, we should
focus on God.".
Response: This statement is
a contradiction in itself, it claims that we should "focus on God"
while we promote ignorance by saying that we should not focus on Prophecy which
comprises 1/3 of scripture. How can one focus on God without reading His Word
which was written in Prophecy?
How could one accuse Jesus
of "too much prophecy" as He told the Rabbis of the prophecies
written of Him in The Old Testament?
While every Christian
telling of the Gospel relies on Messianic Prophecies can hardly agree with
this. It is a satanic goal to call for Christians to ignore Bible Prophecy.
God claims that the
ability to predict and fulfill prophecy is a unique attribute of His nature, as
he said: "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none
like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things
that are not yet done, saying, My council shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure." (Isaiah 46:9-10).
In this passage, the
prophet Isaiah declares that only God foreknew future events, He also declares
them and then brings them to pass. God also said: "For assuredly, I say to
you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means
pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18).
The idea of Bible Prophecy
is that God have drawn out his plan prior to itªs execution, as to prove when
they happen, that God is in control, and thatªs real evidence.
In another verse God says:
"Present your case, says the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, says
the King of Jacob. Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them
show us the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know
the latter end of them;
Or declare to us the things
to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you
are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together.
Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an
abomination." (Isaiah 41:21-24).
And he continues in chapter
42 verse 9: "Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I
declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them".
God sees all of history;
past present and future. He does not guess what the future holds, he knows !
You see God said that the
only way to know his true message is predictive prophecy, tThis irrefutable
verification is reserved to only the Judeo-Christian Scriptures alone. No
honest person can remain an unbeliever after even a brief study of prophecy,
and prophecy is the missing element in ALL other sacred scriptures of the
worldªs religions. By contrast, prophecy comprises about 25% of the Bible, and
8,352 (Eight thousand three hundred and fifty two) verses.
For examples on the coming
and death of Christ:
The tribe he will come
from, Genisis 49:10
Fulfillment: Luke 3:23-24.
On His birth in Bethlehem
read Micah 5:2
Fulfillment read Matthew
2:1.
His betrayal for 30 pieces
of silver read Zechariah 11:12
Fulfillment read Matthew
26:15.
On him preceded by a
messenger read Isaiah 40:3
Fulfillment read Matthew
3:1-2
On him entering Jerusalem
on a colt read Zechariah 9:9 on
Fulfillment read Luke
19:35-37.
On his betrayal by a friend
read Psalms 41:9
Fulfillment read Matthew
26:47-50
On his hands and feet
pierced read Psalms 22:16
Fulfillment read Luke 23:33
On him wounded and whipped
by his enemies read Isaiah 53:5
Fulfillment read Matthew
27:26.
On him sold for 30 pieces
of silver read Zechariah 11:12
Fulfillment read Matthew
26:15.
Prophecy: On him being spat
on and beaten read Isaiah 50:6
Fulfillment read Matthew
26:67.
Now the tough questions
would be, if the Old Testament was not important, how do we confirm the
validity of Christ's Messiahship? Also, if we take it that we need Prophecy in
the Old Testament, by what right do we eliminate them when they prophecy of
Israel's recreation, regathering, redemption, and the establishment of Christ's
Throne in Jerusalem?
For many who are anti Old
Testament, and anti-Prophecy advocates, they have no basis or foundation to
stand on, their arguments are but sinking sand.
What rights do these books,
publications, and websites that teach Christians in America to abandon their
interpretation of Bible Prophecy concerning the Jews, since supporting Israel
is offensive to the original church the "2% Arab-Christians" in
Palestine?
Islam teaches a form of
replacement theology unlike the West has ever known - that Israel needs to be
annihilated.
▲
IS GOD THROUGH WITH THE JEW
The Jew in the Bible is
indestructible. This unassimilated people have gone through long, intense and
awful suffering. The Egyptians tried to finish them by enslaving them and
forcing them to kill their children, then the Assyrians, then by Nebuchadnezzar
in 588 B.C. In 170 B.C Antiochus Epiphanes sought their destruction and also
failed. Titus destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D and killed over one million Jew
and carried 97,000 into captivity to Rome. Christ made the startling prophecy;
_Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another,
that shall not be thrown down. Matthew 24:2. which to the amazement of His
followers was literally fulfilled. The Jewish blood flowed down the temple
steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished and the studded
crosses on the mountains of Jerusalem were as far as the eye can see.
For several centuries they
were labeled as Christ killers, burned on the stake and enslaved by the order
of dictators and tyrants. No one can honestly deny the frightening holocaust
that took place under Hitler. The world has always tried, even King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella who became idolized in history by equipping Columbus for his
journey, they also made 500,000 Jews homeless. The Soviet Union let several
progroms of torment and humilliation to the Jews. The challenge is to find a
single nation or people in history that has suffered a fraction of what the
Jews went through. The ironic thing is that all was done in the name of God and
justice. No where in the Bible this hate to the Jew was justified. Yet from the
small remnants put forth as the result of all the attempts to exterminate the
Jews, the Jewish population today grew to several millions, fulfilling God¦s
promise in the Bible; _Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. God hath not
cast away His people whom He foreknew÷. (Romans 11:1-2). And this should settle
the question forever. To ensure this God declared in the Bible; _Thus saith the
Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and
of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar;
The Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith
the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before
Me forever. Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the
foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the
seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord÷.
Many civilizations
throughout history rose, prospered and died. Babyoln, Greece, Rome and others.
However, the nation of Israel persisted to live against all odds. While the
Arabic nations occupy land five hundred times larger than Israel, they
persisted on destroying her. Yet the tiny Jewish nation survived against all
odds, why? Men throughout the ages, have critisized the Bible with it¦s
multiple prophecies about the restoration of Israel, how could the poor Jew
make a state and be regathered? Yet man can finally conclude that the Bible can
be proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be true Gold, not only by hundreds of
ancient prophecies that came to pass, but by one ancient word created by God from
the time of Jacob until our generation, for all who doubt, and that word
was and still is 'Israel'. Israel's existence today, and the re-gathering of
the Jews from all parts of the world, is an irrefutable proof, that the holy
Bible is the true word of God, as God scattered them throughout the whole
world, and re-gathered them again from ALL nations back to their original land
in fulfillment of his promises in the far past, until our present.
Israel is the only nation
in the world which ceased to exist and returned to play such an important roll
in world history. No one in the world today can ignore the importance of Israel
in the world today, although many promisses were made in the Old Testament to
Israel and her restorations for God said;
_I will gather you from all
the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord,
and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away
captive÷. Jer 29:14
If one is asked a Christian
in 1943, how could these prophecies be true when the Jews were dying by the
masses in the concentration camps of Ashwitz and Treblinca? would only have to
wait a few more years to be stunned by God¦s shocking surprise when he made
good His promisses.
No serious person should
question God¦s eternal and unchangable Bible, the very living and speaking God
who never ceased to talk to the whole world. He is the same God who parted the
Red sea, destroyed the walls of Jericho, and gathered his scattered Jews from
all over the Glob. It is a mockery to God when man by his foolish pride dictate
how God His maker should operate the world, in whom He chooses and in whom He
wants to be honored through.
The following prophecies
are so simple to understand, that they needed no interpretation for anyone who
whitnesses the recent historical events on Israel;
"Thus says the Lord:
_Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My
people to inherit -- behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out
the house of Judah from among them. _Then it shall be, after I have plucked
them out, that I will have compassion on them and bring them back everyone to
his heritage and everyone to his land.÷ (Jeremiah 12:14-15).
"Therefore behold, the
days are coming says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord lives
who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but The Lord
lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from
all the lands where He had driven them. For I will bring them back into their
land which I gave to their fathers" (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
Prophecy is intentionally
ignored by promoters of Replacement Theology in order to justify their claim,
and even many Christians who witness to Muslims rather ignore the direction given
by God to use Prophecy in order not to offend Muslims since Israel is an
offense, yet they would not hesitate to use Bible Prophecy to prove Jesus being
The Messiah. A contradiction of goals and a twisting of the Word of God must
never be excused. If Israel is an offense to cults, so is Christ crucified and
His Lordship as well. Must we not speak of Christ? Must we not trust God that
"All Scripture is given by God ...good for teaching..".
While God even affirmed in
the next verses of Jeremiah:
"Thus saith the Lord,
If heaven above can be measured, and foundations of the earth searched out
beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have
done, saith the Lord". Jeremiah 31:36.
"How can I give you up
Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? For I am God and not man." Hosea
11:8,9.
And to put to rest any
other people chosen to reveal God's truth:
"He has revealed his
word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other
nation." Psalm 147:19,20.
"The LORD will not
reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance." Psalm 94:14
"I ask then: Did God
reject his people? By no means!" Romans 11:1
"Remember that at one
time you were separated from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise... Consequently, you are no longer
foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God's people and members of
God's household..." Ephesians 2:12 &19
And finally, these
promoters will always claim that we need to view the New Testament on this
issue, that we have followed the Old Testament teachings, yet we can see
clearly that the New Testament as well as the Old are solid and in perfect
harmony. In fact God makes a confirmation:
"The law, introduced
430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God
and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law,
then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham
through a promise." Galatians 3:17,18.
"And it shall come to
pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of His people.. .and He shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed
of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:11)
"And I will bring
again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities
and inhabit them...and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, sayeth the Lord
thy God." (Amos 9:14,15)
This prophecy is one of the
recent historical event that has forced the world, and theologians, to
re-examine their suppositions concerning the Jews is the physical rebirth of
the nation of Israel in 1948. It looked like an unexpected and unpredictable
event. In fact it was a prophetic fulfillment.
"Hear the Word of the
LORD, O ye nations. Declare it and say, He that scattered Israel will gather
him, therefore, they shall come and sing again in the heights of Zion."
That is Jeremiah 31:10-12
When was the Church was
ever scattered?
This verse is paraphrased.
Again in Isaiah 60, "The Gentiles shall come to thy light," declared
the prophet Isaiah. "and the Kings to the brightness of thy rising. The
wealth of the Gentiles shall come to thee Israel. Thou shalt suck the milk of
the Gentiles and thou shalt know that I am the LORD, thy Saviour, thy Redeemer,
the Might One of Jacob. They (the Gentiles) shall call thee (Israel) the City
of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
Ezek 36:24-28, sums up the
story of Israel's return and redemption: "For I will take you from among
the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your
own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all
your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
The great exodus from Egypt
in the time of Moses is small compared to the regathering of the Jewish people from
all over the world. The mighty God of Israel is still bringing them from
all the lands and from the land of the north. This reference of the land of the
north is also refered to by the prophet Jeremiah;
"Behold, I will bring
them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and
with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child together: a great company
shall return thither" (Jeremiah 31:8).
The great outpouring of
Jews from Russia(far north of Israel) to the promised land is one of the most
exciting events God made for His people. Russia has persecuted the Jews since
the time of the Czars until the recent breakup of the Soviet Empire. Against
all odds the miracles fulfilled by God to restore their identity, language, and
land is still part of what is about to come.
Russia's 40% Muslim
population which belongs to the Turkish-Mongol tribes, who are seeking greater
atonomy still are appointed for their destiny for destruction with other
Islamic nations as perscribed in Ezekiel 38. The accuracy of Bible prophecy is
a warning to the Muslim nations that God will fulfill the rest of His promisses
to the enemies of Israel. It is not a joking matter when The Awesome God
speaks, but a message to be delivered for man to heed.
Not only God was specific
about the regathering but He named the very name the land shall be called, as
it was called Palestine for over a thousand years He declared; "Therefore
say, Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from
the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land
of Israel." (Ezekiel 11:17).
It must be known that God
declared the name for that land, anyone who changes this name or harms His
people will end up paying a heavy price for He said speaking of Israel;
"For thus says the
Lord of hosts: _He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for
he who touches you touches the apple of His eye." (Zechariah 2:8).
It is indeed a warning to
anyone who harms the Jews. Notice how even the Lord(God) speaks to God as He
says; "He sent Me", how could God send God unless God The Father
sends God The Son?
As He continues in verse
10; "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I
will dwell in your midst, says the Lord". (Zechariah 2:10).
This is a litteral coming
of the Lord(God in the flesh) to dwell in Jerusalem. This was prophecied by the
prophet Zechariah long before Christ came. How could the Jews who today do not
believe in Christ be accused of corrupting His word, yet they kept these verses
despite their rejection of Christianity.
Even the name of the city
He promised to give them was He named;
"I will bring them
back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people
and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness."(Zechariah 8:8).
And just like many of
Christ "two fold" prophecies like Micah 5:2, here also it is a two
fold prophecy, first a return in unbelief, then Messiah's second coming, then
belief.
Even the language Israel
spoke thousands of years ago is today the main language of Israel after it has
been dead all these years. No other nation in history lost it¦s language then
later restored it except the nation of Israel. The prophet Zephania prophecied
of this; "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they
may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent" (Zephaniah
3:9).
They eventually will call
on God when Christ comes the second time. Even the abundance of fruits today in
Israel which allowed her to export to Europe 90% of Europe¦s citrus fruit. God
said through Isaiah the prophet; "He shall cause them that come of Jacob
to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with
fruit" (Isaiah 27:6).
Even the desert in Israel
is blossoming due to the increasing rain in the last days, a 10% increase in
rain fall is measured every decade, millions of trees were planted, and God
transformed the whole environment of the land which God through Isaiah
prophecied:
"Be glad then, ye
children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the
former rain moderatley, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the
former rain, and the latter rain in the first month÷ (Joel 2:23)."
To study the Law of
probability of these and many other prophecies would again prove beyond any
shadow of a doubt that God exists and His name is Jehovah the redeemer of
Israel as He declared.
- On the destruction of the
city of Tyre read Ezekiel 26.
- On the destruction and
rebuilding of the city of Amman Jordan read Jeremiah 49:3-6.
- On the desolation of
Petra: Jeremiah 49. (Fulfilled)
- On Babylon read Jeremiah
50. (Fulfilled)
▲
WHO’S TEMPLE MOUNT?
PA's opinion:
"Jerusalem is not a
Jewish city, despite the biblical myth implanted in some minds...There is no
tangible evidence of Jewish existence from the so-called 'Temple Mount
Era'...The location of the Temple Mount is in question...it might be in Jericho
or somewhere else." (Walid M. Awad, Director of Foreign Publications for
the PLO's Palestine Ministry of Information, interviewed by the IMRA news
agency, Dec.25, 1996.)
Arafat's opinion:
"Allow me to remind
you here of what the Israeli government is intent upon doing--and that is
digging a tunnel under the western wall of Al Aqsa mosque." (Yasir Arafat,
speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in Islamabad, Pakistan,
March 23, 1997)
the Islamic authorities
opinion:
"The people of Israel
realize perfectly well that they have no temples or ruins near Al Aqsa Mosque.
According to the Koran, the people of Israel lived somewhere to the west of
Bethlehem...they were living in Bethlehem and not in Jerusalem." (Sheikh
Ismail Jamal, the PLO's Director of the Islamic Wakf in Jericho, quoted in the
Chicago Jewish Sentinel, May 18, 1995)
▲
THE EASTERN GATE
In the book of Ezekiel
44:1-3; _Then He brought me back to the outer gate which faces toward the east,
but it was shut. And the Lord said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not
be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has
entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ÷. Now see Ezekile 43:1 _Afterward
he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. And behold, the
glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east÷. And in chapter 43:
verse 4; _And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by the way of the gate
which faces toward the east.÷ This is referring to the beautiful Eastern or
Golden Gate, located 1,035 feet north of the Southeast corner of Al-Harm or
Temple Mount area. Which Muslim Khaleefeh Abdel-Malek bin-Marwanl build the
Dome of the rock in A.D. 691, the gate had already been sealed. It has been
sealed almost a thousand years ago. According to these verses this gate is
reserved for the coming Messiah. Many attempts have been made to open it. In
1917 Muslim leaders in control of Jerusalem tried and failed to break the
prophecy and open the gate. Each time, on the exact day the workmen were
preparing to demolish the ancient stone, the hand of God intervened and the
city of Jerusalem passed out of Muslim control into the hands of the British.
In 1967 the same story all over again. Israel took over Jerusalem on the same
day. More important, these verses are referring to The Lord God of Israel who
entered by the Eastern Gate. And again he will enter by it a second time. This
prophecy cannot be speaking about no other but The Messiah(Al-Maseeh). It
plainly calls Him the God of Israel. He is declared as _The God÷. The Bible
declares that He is God in the Flesh. Who came to the Temple, left and will
come back again. The Gate he entered by, shall be reserved for him just before
the second coming. Muslims doubt the Bible by accusing the Jews or the
Pharisees of corrupting the Old Testament. That would be impossible since the
Jews like the Muslims, do not believe God came or will come in the flesh. The
Jews would love to erase anything that speaks of Jesus or God being in the
flesh, since this is the Christian claim. The Jews always regarded their sacred
texts of the Bible to be Holy. They never changed it, and the existence of
these verses just adds to the evidence. This ties to the Book of Zecharia
chapter 14 verses 3 to 4; _Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those,
nations, As He fights in the day of battle. And on that day His feet will stand
on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of
Olives shall split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half
of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.÷
Now, when did _The Lord÷ God have feet? The Mount of Olives which faces
directly the Eastern Gate, which will be opened by his coming. These prophecies
are remarkable and astonishing. How did these prophets predict all of this to
match with a _sealed Eastern Gate÷?
On the rebuilding of the
Third Temple in Jerusalem (Future), read Amos 9:11, Revelation 11:1-2. Since
Christ will enter in the Eastern Gate to go into the temple The Bible clearly
promises that Israel will build the Third Temple. Yet the Muslim Dome of the
Rock is on the Temple Mount(Al-Haram Al-Shareef). Despite all the problems that
are going on in the area concerning the holy sites. a Jewish Temple will be
built according to God¦s promise. Many question the possibility of the Jewish
Temple being rebuilt side-by-side with the Muslim Dome of the Rock, since The
Tomb of Abraham (Machphella) in Hebron includes worship sites for both Muslims
and Jews. The prophet John(Yahya) was given a vision of the rebuilt Temple
during the Tribulation; _Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and
those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple,
and don not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will
tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months÷ Revelation 11:1-2. Since
the Dome of the Rock was built in the area called _The Court of the Gentiles÷,
it is possible that the Temple will be side by side with a wall separating the
two. When the Messiah will come, (And He will come). He will descend on the
Mount of Olives, cross the Kidron Valley, enter the Eastern Gate, and go into
the Temple.
Gog & Magog (The
Judgment of the coming Russian Islamic invasion on Israel)
▲
EMEU, AL-SABEEL, AL-BUSHRA, ABUNA CHACOUR
WHAT ARE THEIR ECUMENICAL GOALS
Anti-Israel Christians and
most Muslims in Palestine point out the political agenda of Christian Zionists.
While Christian Zionists support Israel and the Jewish right to live in Israel,
Christian organizations like EMEU, AL-SABEEL, AL-BUSHRA and others in Palestine
and abroad have little difference in goals with Islamic fundamentalist groups
in their representation of hard-line political movement against Israel.
Christian Zionists
substantiate their claims by the close adherance to Bible Prophecy. Volumes
written in scripture to grant it the right to be a theological issue for every
Bible believer. While pro-Israel Christians are accused having to defend their
claims, it is fare to point out who these accusers are, and what convictions
and motives they have.
Take an example the works
of Labib Qubti and the volumes of articles written at his website called
"Al-Bushra(The Good News), Their main web site statement of faith:
"Al-Bushra stands pro-Truth, pro-Justice and pro-Peace & prays God,
Allah, HaShem,Adonai,the Most Holy for Mankind. Al-Bushra, is asking you to
pray for Peace and Justice in the World. Its purpose is not a political purpose
but a prayerful purpose. So please go to your church, synagogue, mosque or
temple and say a private prayer on behalf of Peace and Justice. As we believe
in ONE GOD, that GOD, ALLAH, ADONAI, HaShem, the Most Holy is One for all of
us." (Labib Qubti, Al-Bushra).
While they claim this goal
of "prayer" a glance at the pages of their material proves that the
opposite is true, they call everyone to: "Please, stand with the Right of
the Palestinians to have their own independent Country Palestine and their
Capital East-Jerusalem.". (Al-Bushra, what is the truth).
In cooperation with the
Palestinian Authority lead by Yasser Arafat they are engaged on what they call
'The Phased Plan', which calls Palestinians to accept any peace proposal in
order to gain as much land as possible. In one statement they cry out to Yasser
Arafat saying: "WE CALL UPON ARAB GOVERNMENTS AND THE PALESTINIAN
AUTHORITY to unify their positions concerning Jerusalem, a historical trust for
the Arabs and all people of faith throughout the world, and to intensify their
defense of the Arab character of Jerusalem and its religious pluralism raising
it to the stature befitting this blessed city" (Al-Bushra, 7th issue, Aug
1996), and "Please, stand with the Right of the Palestinians to have their
own independent Country Palestine and their Capital East-Jerusalem.".
(Al-Bushra, an Arab Christian website, what is the truth).
If this is not a political
agenda what is it then? A poltical agenda that accuses a poltical agenda of
political agenda.
In summary, the costs of
this political agenda which needs the support of the masses in any faith to the
point that even the calling of unity with non-Christians becomes permisable for
the cause of justice, that even "prayers" are answered without the
need of Jesus Christ.
Similar goals are found
written in the Palestinian Charter and spoken by all Palestinian government
officials who also call for the division of Israel first then it's destruction.
So much for peace, justice,
love, and harmony.
Instead of pointing the
persecutions of Jews in Christian history, and the persecution of Muslims of
Christians and Jews, these "Christians" claim that it is
"Israel" that persecutes "Christians" to the point that
they are moving in droves. They simply want to champion behind Yasser Arafat
and the PA Authority .
The facts are that
Christians of the Holy Land are being persecuted by Moslems, and not by Jews.
The Jews of Israel have never persecuted Arab Christians for their faith,
though it has served Palestinian propaganda purposes to pretend that it has
happened. What Arab Christians call persecutions are simply the outcome of
Israelis border closuers resulting from Palestinian terrorism. These closuers
which affected everyone in the Palestinian territories Christian and Muslim
alike. This security measure should not be confused with a specific targeting
of Christians for oppression.
Labib Qubti, Emil Salayta,
Elias Chakour and other members who get their support from the Catholic and
Greek Orthothox churches, who follow the commands of the Pope favoring Arafat
over Jewish administrators of Israel.
The Vatican ignores Moslem
persecution of Arab Christians in Israel and elsewhere, and instead kowtows to
an Islamic terrorist. Biblically the Jews are described as Jesus Christ's own
family. The Moslems who support these groups have no relationship with Him
whatever. These key people have been used simply as a tool in the hands of
Arafat and the Vatican.
The goal of the Arab and
Muslim masses towards Israel is obvious, a political agenda for "the
weak" until he becomes strong enough to take on his enemy. Allah of Islam
whom many professing Christians are uniting with is so different from the God
of the Bible. Allah's messenger stated that "The Last Hour would not come
till the Muslims fight against the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them until
the Jews hide themselves behind the stones and trees, and the stones and trees
would speak up saying: "O Muslim! O slave of Allah! There is a Jew hiding
behind me; come and kill him." The _Ghardaq_ tree would speak, for it is
the tree of the Jews." (Muhammad the prophet of Islam, narrated by Abu
Hurraira).
Must we as Christians unite
with Islam against the Jews?
One glance at there
material will soon uncover there relgion, convictions, and goals ,
"Eastern Churches were the first to discover the love of Mary. Eastern
Marian theology leads us to discover the real face of Mary". (John Samaha,
Al-Bushra), "For Christians she is the all-holy Theotokos,the mother of God".
(Cardinal William Keeler, Al-Bushra), and as far as God's calling to evangelize
muslims, all you see in there writtings are things like: "They [the
Muslims]adore one God, living and enduring, merciful and all powerful,maker of
heaven and earth and speaker to humankind.... They also honor Mary, his virgin
mother; at times they call on her too with devotion. What a propitious moment
it is, therefore, that finds Christians and Muslims together on a major feast
of the Virgin Mary to celebrate the mutual esteem for one another which befits
men and women in the faith tradition of Abraham".(Cardinal William Keeler,
Al-Bushra). In their view, since Abraham is the father of all three religions
then the main goal should be religious unity and not evangelism.
In a conference in 1999 for
Peace and Middle Eat Understanding held in Walnut Creek California Mr. Emil
Salayta a speaker at EMEU, a Parish priest of Bir-Zeit Palestrine, and the
General Director of the Latin Patriarchal Schools for all of Palestine he was
recorded when he was asked the question: "What do you think of
Israel?" he responded "It should be eliminated", and when he was
asked: "By putting bombs in Jewish buses and killing Jewish children, he
responded: "By whatever means, they should be eliminated".
So much for peace.
Claiming to carry out God's
calling Mr. Salayta a speaker at EMEU was asked: "Do you evangelize the
Moslems in your school?". He responded with: "No, because
evangelizing would not be respecting the convictions of others and creating a
problem for the other side.". The question Christians should ask, is that
what Christ would say? If his agenda is not to evangelize Muslims, then what is
there religious goals and convictions?
On the other hand Christian
Zionist establishments like the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem does not have
any support or sympathy by the Christian Arabs, Daud Kuttab a prominant
Palestinian journalist writes:
"Unlike what its name
implies, the International Christian Embassy doesn't represent the world's
Christians, it doesn't even represent Protestant or Evangelical Christians
which comprise the majority of the people that attend its annual feast of the
tabernacle festival. The U.S.-based Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding
which is holding its annual conference next month in Chicago has distanced
itself from this embassy.... The local Arab Christian population both in Israel
and Palestine have had nothing to do with this organization. Local Christian
leaders (both Arab and foreign) have not only disagreed with their theology, but
they have regularly denounced its one-sided and biased political activities on
behalf of right-wing Israelis" (Daud Kuttab's Page, Spetember 30, 1999).
While the same argument can
be used, the opposite of what Mr. Kuttab wrote is true for EMEU which is unknown
in America and do not represent Evangelicals anywhere in the world, and in
reality EMEU are hardly evangelical in nature.
Mr. Kuttab concludes his
article: "What is worrisome, is that the International Christian Embassy
is not really interested in converting people to Christianity but rather in
converting apolitical Christians like Maria to their brand of Christian
Zionism.".
If one is to take EMEU and
Al-Bushra which Mr. Kuttab promotes as real representatives, one can change the
words "Christian Embassy" with "EMEU", and "Christian
Zionism" with "Palestinian Cause" and the results would be true:
What is worrisome, is that EMEU is not really interested in converting people
to Christianity but rather in converting a political Christian to the Palestinian
Cause.
Their view has little difference in goals with the Arab
Muslim masses. Both Muslims and Christians alike in Palestine are called to
fight against the main enemy - Israel. They are willing to set aside there
differences to achieve their main goals, and even hide historical facts of the
decates of persecution by Islam towards Christians. Mr. Emil Salayta, was
asked: "Do you face persecution as a Christian here in a Moslem
context?" Mr. Salayta responded: "I think what the West thinks is
part of a Western propaganda against Islam. We've lived with Islam for
centuries and centuries.". (Interview with Emil Salayta, April 9, 1997).
Mr. Salayta avoids 'rocking
the boat' of peace and is fully free to condemn Benjamin Netenyahu calling him
a "liar" and accusing Israel to suppress the freedom of speech. If
Mr. Salayta expressed his opinion in any Arab country the way he does in
'oppresive' Israel, he would possibly be condemned to death for calling any
Arab leader a "liar".
Mr. Salayta does not share
the true history of persecution committed by Islam, instead he lifts up Islam,
and intentionally forgets that Islam declared the Jews as Dhimmi which put the
Jew under the Omar Charter.
This covenant was literally
carried out by Islam against Jews and Christians from time immemorial, yet they
deliberately ignore it and claims that "centuries and centuries"
Christians lived in peace and harmony with Muslims. He ignores the million
Armenians butchered by Muslims in Fez Turkey with blood that flowed throughout
the streets, and instead of concentrating on the 1.5 million Sudanese
Christians who were annihilated in the past few years by Muslims, Bosnia, or
the persecution of millions of Christians around the world, Ant-Israel
Christians expect that we should drop everything and be in an uproar when Jews
build 6,500 houses in Jerusalem.
Besides the political
outcry for an Arab nation to replace Israel these groups go as far as changing
history to support their claims. The majority of Palestinians cling to the idea
that their origins are from the Canaanites and Jebusites. The Arab Christian
view also interprets God's promise to Abraham concerning the land of Israel as
for all the children of Abraham including the Arabs and that Israel was
inhabited by Arabs for thousands of years before Israel's recent establishment.
To them any Christian who uses Bible Prophecy to support Israel are considered
Christian Zionist liars, Labib Qubti writes: "the Christian Zionists are
not truthful about the Holy Land or Jerusalem. A simple reading of history
shows their claims is not well founded." (Labib Qubti, Al-Bushra).
We ask, are these
accusations and claims valid? Are the Palestinians who they claim to be? Are
they Canaanites, are they the original church? Is Israel the monster they try
to draw? Are they truthful and we liars? Let us examine these issues in light
of the Bible and History.
▲
COLNCLUSION
Along with what was
foretold of the diaspora, persecution, and regathering of the Jews of Israel,
history as well confirmed it. Should there be any question or doubt that the
Bible always agrees with history?
THE EUROPEAN CONNECTION - THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE
BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 12
April 1999
-------------------------------------------
TOWARDS A
EUROPEAN-PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEE RIGHTS
CALL FOR BROAD
INTERNATIONAL ENDORSEMENT OF PETITION FOR THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT
TO RESTITUTION
The European Campaign:
A strategy workshop
organized by Oxfam Solidarity/Belgium between March 29 and 1
April 1999 set the
foundations for two Palestinian-European Campaigns, a
campaign for Palestinian
Economic Development, and a Campaign for Palestinian
Refugee Rights.
Participants were Palestinian and European NGOs (BADIL Resource
Center, Forum of
Palestinian NGOs-Lebanon, PARC, Belgo-Palestinian Association,
Flamish Palestine
Committee, Oxfam Solidarity, UCL CERMAC, a.o.),
representatives of the
ECCP, Belgian parliamentarians and trade unionists,
representatives of the
European parliament and EU commissions, and PLO and Arab
League representatives. The
Campaign for Palestinian Refugee Rights will:
- Empower Palestinian
refugee initiatives and NGOs;
- Advocate for the
Palestinian right of return;
- Lobby for increased
government support for UNRWA.
The campaign will be
launched in Belgium to expand to other European countries
in coordination with the
ECCP (European Coordinating Committee on Palestine) in
the second half of 1999.
THE LEAST TALKED ABOUT SUBJECT
ARABS KILLING ARABS
Jordan in September 1970,
for example, 2000 people were killed in three weeks and the rebellion was
finished.
A RESPONSE BY A CHRISTIAN WHO SUPPORTS ISRAEL
They usually emphasize what
was done to Palestinians by Israel during the intifada and never mention what
Palestinians do to the Jewish people, or the numbers of Palestinians killed by
Palestinians during the intifada which is more than all Palestinians killed
during all the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts.
Clinging to the
Palestinian-Arab rights to the land and the disbursed Palestinians, they
deliberately ignore the anti-Semitic history in all the Arab countries, and
while they cry out for justice and law for displaced Palestinians, they shed no
tears for all the Jews who were butchered, abused, and extradited in masses out
of all Arab land forcing them to immigrate to Israel.
The Palestinian Christian
point of view, filled with fractions of truths mixed with pure propaganda
argues that Israel kicked out 4 million Palestinians, that Israel tortures
Palestinians, and prohibits education. Instead of the spec in Jewish eye, it is
time to remove the scales from their own eye when the fact is that Israel was
created due to Arab Nazi-like bursts of brutality, and mass extradition of the
Jews from all the Arab lands which forced the Jews to immigrate to Israel. The
Nazi Arab hate, the Russian Pogroms, along with the Holocaust was the main
cause for Israel to be created. In the Arab World, "Of more than 850,000
Jews in Arab lands fewer than 29,000 remained forced to leave to Israel"
(American Jewish Yearbook, 1983, George Gruen, editor, New York).
It was pure hate fed
through schools and Arab media that caused severe persecution in the Arab
world, The prominent Egyptian Anis Mansour who is well respected by the
Palestinian Christians once wrote: "People all over the world come to
realize that Hitler was right, since Jews are bloodsuckers" (Anis Mansour
1973).
History records the
manifestation of evil that took place all over the Arab world. In Yemen the Jew
who lived there for thousands of years fell under the previously mentioned
'Omar Charter' which called for the severe fanatical edicts of the most
intolerant Islamic sects. In Adan the Arab riots and pogroms erupted in 1947
killing Jews, ransacking houses, and robbed every single Jewish store, burning
every Jewish synagogue and home in the country. The only Jews who were spared
were at an area called "Steamer Point". They were all forced to leave
in 1958. In Iraq, all the Jews were forced to leave between 1948 and 1952 and
to leave everything behind. Jews were publicly hanged in the center of Baghdad
with enthusiastic mobs as audiences. In Egypt Jamal Abdunnaser stated:
"Our sympathy was with the Germans". During the 6 day war the Jews of
Egypt were rounded up and thrown into concentration camps. Egypt had no place
for Jews.
In Morocco, nothing was
worse than the slaughter of 120,000 Jews in 1146 in Fez. in 1948 mob violence
and hostilities forced the Jews to leave to Israel. In Algeria, Jews were
accused of sorcery, they were slaughtered and plundered continually. The
Algerians were inflamed with Nazi influence, Jewish diplomats were kidnapped
and killed. The Jewish population in 1948 diminished in a few months, forced to
leave to Israel. In Tunisia, the Jews had the title as detested
"Dhimmi", having to pay heavy taxation, and forced to wear separate
clothing different than the Moors, they had to wrap yellow banners around their
necks, and the women could never wear shoes, daring to change these rules would
result in public stoning. Forbidden to carry arms, repair their synagogues,
mass extortion, rape, mass murders and extreme Arabization forced 50% of the
Jews to flee to Israel. The other 50% left to France.
In Syria, The status of
"Dhimmi" gave the Jew no rights at all, only the right not to defend
himself. During 1944 - 1945 intensified persecution of the Jews took place
forcing the Jews to flee to Israel. The same status was for the Jews in Lebanon
and Lybia.
Christians should wonder
why these groups never mention any of the atrocities in their supposed peace
and reconciliation seminars? Where is the 'centuries and centuries' of peace
Mr. Salayta is speaking of? Could it be that they want you to listen to one
side of the story. A good judge must always hear the "other" party.
The idea that the Jews
forced the Palestinians out is from a well known lie and perversion of history
past down by the Arabs who were defeated in 1948 and 1967. It is called
"The political influence of tradition", when all the people who fled
away and ran across the Jordan river was out of fear imposed by the Arab Media
themselves who told the Palestinians to leave because the Jew will slaughter
them. It was pure Arab propaganda against Israel which made the Palestinians
leave out of fear implanted by the Arab masses. One should wonder why EMEU
would never blame anything on the Arabs themselves?
Unlike the call of Arab
leaders to kill every Jew, in the 6 day war there was no civilian Arab attacked
by the Israelis, no stores robbed, no homes looted, and no women raped. The
Israeli's announced to everyone to put a white flag on their gates and no one
would be harmed.
As far as Israel
extraditing some individuals to Jordan and Lebanon, we must first need to study
what these individuals did to the Jews in Israel, most of which were terrorists
who committed crimes against Israel in the name of independence from Israel. In
fact one of these terrorists the well known father Elarion Cappucci, a Catholic
Arch-Bishop of Palestine who was caught smuggling hundreds of kilos of
explossives aimed to kill Jews, a terrorist who was supported by all
Palestinian Christians and who holds the Arab Christian view on Israel.
A LETTER FROM JERUSALEM
BY ELIEZER BEN-ISRAEL
The following
"letter" by a Jew to the Gentile world first appeared as an editorial
in the long-defunct "Jerusalem Times" in 1969. Twenty-seven years
later, most the feelings and thoughts it conveys remain uncannily appropriate.
I AM a Jerusalemite - like
yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral
part of my people.
I have a few things to get
off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do
not have to please you, or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not
build this city; you did not live in it; you did not defend it when they came
to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away.
There was a Jerusalem
before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris were
miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave
something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you
established yourselves - a humane moral code.
Here the prophets walked,
their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing
more than to be left alone, fought oft waves heathen would-be conquerors, bled
and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning
Temple rather than surrender, and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and
led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would
see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither.
For two pain-filled
millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to
this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: "Gather us from
the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to
Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised." On every Yom
Kippur and Passover, we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us
in Jerusalem.
Your inquisitions, pogroms,
expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your
quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror,
the Holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it) - all these have
not broken us.
They may have sapped what
little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel. Do
you think that you can break us now, after all that we have been through? Do
you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your
threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to hell and back - a hell of
your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare
us?
I have watched this city
bombarded twice by nations that call themselves civilized. In 1948, while you
looked on apathetically, I saw woman and children blown to smithereens, after
we agreed to your request to internationalise the city.
It was a deadly combination
that did the job. British officers, Arab gunners, and American-made cannons.
And then the savage sacking of the Old City, the willful slaughter, the wanton
destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish
cemeteries, the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building
materials, for poultry runs, army camps - even latrines.
And you never said a word.
You never breathed the
slightest protest when the Jordanians shutoff the holiest of our places, the
Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war - a war
they waged, incidentally, against the decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from
you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire
upon our citizens from behind the walls. Your hearts bled when Berlin came under
siege. But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged
Jerusalem....
The only time you came to
life was when the city was at last reunited. Then you wrung your hands and
spoke loftily of "justice" and the need for the "Christian"
quality of turning the other cheek. The truth is - and you know it deep inside
your gut - you would prefer the city be destroyed rather than have it governed
by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age-old prejudices
seep out of every word.
If our return to the city
has tied your theology in knots, perhaps you had better re-examine your
catechisms. After what we have been through, we are not passively going to
accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal
homelessness until we accept your saviour.
For the first time since
the year 70 A.D. there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem.
For the first time since the Romans put a torch to the Temple everyone has
equal rights. (You prefer to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the
sword - but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace-but we are
not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like. We are home. It has a
lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander over the face of the globe.
We are not leaving. We are redeeming the pledge made by our forefathers.
Jerusalem is being rebuilt. "Next year" - and the year after, and
after, and after, until the end of time - "in Jerusalem".
Poem: (Son of Jacob)
Through Isaiah
Jeremiah
the prophets have
foretold from long ago
God was there
from days and times of old
He was there
in The Ark
Passover He's The Lamb
and to Abram
your great grandfather
to save you gave The Ram
for redemption
of your sins
your father had to kill
a lamb that's spotless
a lamb that's sinless
it's blood he had to spill
don't you wonder
son of Jacob
why a lamb must die?
why so much blood
must be sprinkled
don't you wonder why?
Then to Moses
for your people
He spoke on Mount Sainai
Through a fire
thundered loudly
you ever wonder why?
Your God has spoken
son of Jacob
not just yesterday
look and wonder
what He's doing
today and everyday
why one sin
made by Moses
The Rock he struck it twice
Who was that rock
son of Jacob?
that Rock was none but
Christ
so let me tell you
son of Jacob
who died on Calvary
The Lamb of God
and your Messiah
the God who died for thee
He was silent like a lamb
then brusied and whipped
and slain
the Lord your God and your
Messiah
has not been slain in Vain
He was taken
to the judges
in silence led to death
hung while naked
and forsaken
bled, ran out of breath
while He died
they'd call Him looser
they'd laugh and scorn and
mock
remember always
after sorrow
prepare yourself for shock
the skies would thunder
the earth was shaken
the sun was turned to gloom
A shock to satan
the god of evil
his fate was surly doomed
the vail He tore down
then they entered
redemption has begun
through Messiah
God almighty
the sacrifice is done
(Psalm 22:16)
From Him rushes
living waters
the lamb you ate His meat
The lamb was slaughtered
the blood was sprinkled
bruised His hands and feet
Have you wondered
who your God is?
or does he have a Son?
The Lord Messiah
Elohim
The Lord your God is one
You will see that
one day my son
These words are not in vain
He has come
and when you cry
one day He'll come again
(Zec 14:4)
Landing down the Mount of
Olives
to save you from defeat
please remember in your
good book
The Lord lands on His feet
for God was clothed
in flesh like people
ate and walked the street
(Zec 14:2, 12:10, 13:6)
He came for them
yet through the ages
His plea they did refuse
but when they call Him
they'll be butchered
for simply being Jews
They weep and morn
and when they see Him
they stare strait at His
bruise
Then they ask why
He was wounded
as the crying ends
"These wounds I got in
the house of Jacob
my kindred and my
friends"
You were scattered
through the nations
a sword was after you
searched and plundered
raped and hungered
for simply being Jew
He then remembered
what He promised
your father Abraham
then He brought you
from the nations
to the promised land
(Joel 3:2, God hates
dividing Israel into a Palestinian state and a Jewish state)
Then He judges
all the Gentiles
that hated all the Jews
for they parted Yesrael
who slaves you
will surely loose
You were made for
God's own glory
to show the world His will
He's fulfilled it daily my
son
just look at Yesrael
___________________________________
Joshua led them
through the Jordan
to make a nation strong
A nation was born
Now born again
as promised from so long
(Israel reborn)
He prepares thee
when you grow son
and take Yerushalayim The
Lord your God
kept His promiss
He gave to Abraheim
(Ezekiel 37:21)
He has gathered
from the nations
and took you by the hand
He will take you son of
Jacob
into your own land
Through the fire
He has lifted
Shadrach and his men
Daniel also trusted God
lived the Lions Den Don't
you see why
you were crying
hungry left to die
destitute and forsaken
don't you wonder why?
Don't you wonder
how you die
son of Abraham
Thrown in ditches
killed in masses
silent like a lamb
Just like you
o son of Jacob
silent like a lamb
as for trespass
He was faultless
The God of 'The I AM'
Yahweh parted
mighty waters
when Moses trusted Him
foolish men who worshiped
Pharaoh
there fate was sad and grim
like these men o son of Jacob
one day you too will win
why you wonder?
why you worry?
for wolves have come and
gone
your God will help thee
son of Jacob
your God has always won
The Author