Shalom from Zion,

The following quote from Israel, God's Servant (Torrance & Taylor, Paternoster, 2007, p.4), pinpoints a crucial issue for believers.

In reality, the Jewish problem is one of the central Christian problems: a wrong position towards the Jews means a distorted approach to God and His Word, and a misunderstanding of the very claim of the Christian message.

Many churches pay no attention to either Israel or the Jews and think that those who do are unbalanced. What do the Scriptures say?

LORD God of Israel

In the Bible, God being glorified - the goal of all we are and do - is linked with His people Israel. For example, after God revealed the "Davidic Covenant" to King David (2 Sam. 7:4-16), David's response of praise and prayer, included, Let Your name be magnified for ever, saying, LORD [YHWH] of hosts is the God over Israel… (2 Sam. 7:26a) YHWH's identification as Israel's God brings Him glory!

Malachi 1:5 affirms this. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

In Ezekiel 36 we read that today's restoration of Israel brings God glory. Israel's sins caused God to scatter them. Then God says concerning their restoration, vv. 22-23, I am not doing this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake… I will sanctify My great name… and the gentiles shall know that I am LORD… when I shall be sanctified in you [Israel] before their eyes.

God will be sanctified through Israel by His declared two part plan - aliyah (the immigration of the Jews to Israel) and their salvation. First: I will take you from among the gentiles, gather you out of all nations, and bring you into your own land. (vs. 24) This has been happening for over a century and is increasing today.

Next comes a concise description of what it means to be "born again" (vv. 25-28): Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you 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. I will take away [your] stony heart… and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk according to My Word. You shall dwell in the land I gave to your fathers. You shall be My people, and I will be your God. Note how He ends this promise: Not for your sakes will I do this, says the Lord GOD… I LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. (v. 36) If our God has spoken this, saying He will do it - if He then does not do it, what kind of a God do we serve? Praise God, we do see it happening and it is all linked with His glory.

Make sure your God is God

What you believe about Israel is a good test for what you believe about God. For instance, if you believe that God is love, yet you do not believe God still loves the Jews, what kind of loving God do you trust in?

Concerning the last days (see Jer. 30:24), God states, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. Here is why and how He will do this. …I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you. (Jer. 31:1, 3. see also Deut. 7:6-8)

Jeremiah 32:41 is the only time God says He will do something with all of His heart and soul. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul. He continues, For thus says LORD, just like I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good I promised them. (v. 42) The judgments promised if Israel disobeyed Him have happened (see Deut. 28:15-68). Therefore, we know His promised blessings, including salvation (Jer. 32:37-40; 33:6-16, etc.), must also happen. We see it now.

Yeshua said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father… (John 14:9b, cp. 14:7). Yeshua, God in bodily form (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:3a), expressed emotion. And God expresses strong feelings for Zion. For LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.  (Psalms 132:13-14)

If God makes such declarations of love and commitment, is it possible that He could finally reject Israel? No. For I am LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. (Mal. 3:6; cp. Rom. 11:28)

God's nature

The battle over Israel is really a battle over God's character. God promised over 200 times in the Old Testament to give the land of Israel to the people of Israel, and then sent His Son to confirm His promises (Matt. 5:17-18; Rom. 15:8; 2 Cor. 1:20). Do we really believe that our God would break all of those promises?

Did He not know the future? Did it surprise Him when most of Israel's leaders rejected Messiah Yeshua when He walked among them? No! (Acts 3:17-18; 4:23-28)

Was Yeshua shocked when His people rejected Him? No, for He came to die (Matt. 20:28). He also knew that He was going to be resurrected and return in glory (Matt 16:21, 27).

Although many Jews did accept Messiah (otherwise we Jewish and gentile believers would not be here today), Paul was concerned about a wrong response against the Jews as a whole for rejecting Messiah. Paul pleaded with gentile believers not to misunderstand God's dealings with Israel. He warned about becoming proud against the Jews (Rom. 11), yet the Church erred in both these things.

The battle over Israel, involving Israel's God and His Word, continues to make headlines. It will send multitudes into the valley of God's judgments (Joel 3:1-2).

US President Obama vs. Israel & America

JP's Caroline Glick warned about Obama's endorsement of the plan to build a mosque by the ruins of the World Trade Center… He said, Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan…

Yet opposition to this project is not based on constitutional grounds, but because many believe it is wrong to build a mosque at the site where … Muslims acting in the name of Islam murdered nearly 3,000 people in an act of war against the US and an act of terror against the American people…

Either [Obama] was motivated by politics or … ideology. Since more that 67% of Americans polled oppose the mosque, it was not politics.

This leaves ideology. If his belief in civil rights is so strong that it propels him to take on deeply unpopular causes in an election season, one would expect this ideology to permeate everything, with him using the same yardstick for all groups, in all places, at all times.

Yet, Obama has taken the position that Jews should be denied the right to their property in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, where the Palestinians want a "no-Jews" state, because he thinks that a Palestinian state will enable Middle East [ME] peace. No Jews? That's right. Palestinian Authority [PA] President Abbas recently told Egyptian reporters, I will not … allow even one Israeli to live among us on Palestinian soil.

Glick: The notion that an inherently anti-Semitic Palestinian state, predicated on Jew hatred that strong, could possibly live at peace with Israel is simply ridiculous. At no time has Obama insisted that Abbas abandon his anti-Semitism, or objected to his Judenrein - free of Jews - policy.

Obama, so ideologically bound to the Palestinian cause, will not see anything Israel does in the "peace" talks as positive.

The US leader who has rejected the expressed views of 68% of his fellow citizens in favor of construction of a mosque at Ground Zero is not going to be moved by reason… [nor] be appeased by Israeli building freezes and other confidence building gestures.

("Standing on a landmine," C. Glick, JP Op-ed, 17 Aug. 2010)

Barry Rubin said Obama's September speech at the UN General Assembly's annual meeting was quite revealing. Two paragraphs about terrorism; two on Iran; ten long paragraphs about Israel-Palestinian issues.

Last year at the UN, he promised direct, intensive talks within two months. It took him a year… Then he calls on Israel to freeze settlements… But he doesn't balance that by asking the Palestinian side to do anything. He calls for countries to give the PA more aid, yet he has failed to get any Arab state to give even as much money as they did when Bush was president…

Rubin quotes from Obama's speech. The courage of a man like President Abbas, who stands up for his people in front of the world, is far greater than those who fire rockets at innocent women and children. Rubin: What does that courage consist of? Making compromises with Israel? Fighting Hamas? Ending incitement and telling his people they should accept Israel's existence? Offering to resettle Palestinian refugees in Palestine or recognizing Israel as a Jewish state…? No. Merely that after resisting for almost two years, he is holding direct talks with Israel while threatening to walk out at the first opportunity.

In 2011, Obama wants the UN to welcome, An independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel. Since there is very little chance of this occurring, why does Obama stake his prestige on it … and make it seem like the world's most important issue? It is his worldview, stressing US responsibility for problems, without asserting US leadership, or interests.

Rubin concludes, There have been presidents who thought that the outside world is exactly the same as America. There have been presidents who thought that the rest of the world is worse than America. Obama is the first president who thinks the rest of the world is better than America. ("How non-American," B. Rubin, JP Op-ed, 27 Sept. 2010)

There is a real concern in Israel that once the November 2^nd US midterm elections are over - regardless of the results - Obama will press for the creation of a Palestinian state. If recent polls prove true and Republicans take one or both houses of Congress, a chastened president might be too busy or weakened to pressure Jerusalem much. Although US foreign policy is set by the White House, Congress is able to influence it through various means.

Another scenario puts Israel in an extremely dangerous place with Obama if his party loses. David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the net effect of his losing the ability to pass domestic legislation might make him a 100% foreign policy president. He might then try to be the great ME peacemaker so as to save his reputation and presidency. ("Israelis, Palestinians eye US midterm elections," JP, 24 Oct, 2010)

The Ground Zero mosque

In a JP Op-ed, Daniel Gordis, senior VP of Jerusalem's Shalem Center, says that on the surface, the mosque building controversy, boils down to a conflict between… American freedom of religion versus the sensitivities of the victims' families. On this level, if you oppose the mosque, you are an Islamophobic racist. If not, you're insensitive to the pain of those who lost loved ones…

Israelis have learned by experience that matters are more complicated. One need not be a racist or an Islamophobic to be concerned about the mosque. Life in our region has taught us that the first necessary step to defending yourself is acknowledging that someone else is out to destroy you.

To politically correct America, those who fight against the US or Israel, do so only for a fair resolution of the conflict, which comes through our understanding of their grievances. "Enemy" is a dirty word, as it implies the immutability of conflict.

Israelis would also prefer a world in which we did not have mortal enemies… [in which] our children went to college at 18, not to years of military service. But we've learned that anything short of absolute clear-sightedness and honesty - coupled with extraordinary sacrifice - could destroy us…

Iran is at the nuclear threshold. Iraq was at best a 'non-failure.' The battle against Taliban and al-Qaida may take years … and require many lives sacrificed … But America [is] war-weary. Obama is already planning to bring the troops home; the word 'terrorist' is increasingly off-limits, because it is seen as being politically incorrect. But unwillingness to call an enemy an 'enemy' could lead to America's demise.

It still remains to be seen if America will do what it must if it is to guarantee the survival of the very values it is now debating. America can remain the land of the free, but only if it is also the home of the brave. ("Ground Zero mosque - what US could learn from Israel," D. Gordis, JP Op-ed, 3 Sept. 2010)

Bibi in the Knesset - Israel's parliament

Prime Minister [PM] Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu speaking at the opening of the Knesset's winter session, said, There is no other democracy in the ME; there is no other Jewish state in the world. The combination of these two values…expresses the foundation of our existence and the essence of the State of Israel.

He added that under the right conditions, establishment of a Palestinian state could bring about peace, but if it is done in an irresponsible manner, it could bring a worsening of the conflict and an increase in terror. In order for the compromise to lead to peace and not war, it must include two fundamental components: recognition and security arrangements.

Bibi insists the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people … The refusal to recognize the rights of the Jewish people and its historic connection to its land is the root of the conflict.

A final peace must also include solid security arrangements in the field. Leaving Lebanon and Gaza without these has proven their need. He noted the peaceful, normal relations Israel once had with Turkey and Iran, both of whom are now foes. No one can say something similar won't happen after a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Therefore we insist on strong security arrangements … to ensure the peace will be upheld in practice, and … to defend our existence if that peace is violated…

Bibi talked about the freeze of new construction in Jewish settlements for ten months. We did so with a heavy heart… Yet the Palestinians wasted that time. And now, with the freeze over, they demand that we continue the moratorium as a condition to continuing the talks…

Bibi wondered what the Palestinians can do to convince the government and … citizens of Israel, that they really want to live in peace? What would show there has been genuine change on the Palestinian side … that they are not only demanding concessions by Israel, not only issuing dictates, but that they are ready to take a meaningful step towards us?

Their leadership must declare to its people that it recognizes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people… If they expect us to recognize the Palestinian state as their nation-state, we can expect them to recognize the Jewish state as our nation-state…

He quoted from Israel's Declaration of Independence. We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel to be known as the State of Israel. Bibi: This is the secret to our national existence, and recognition of this has always been and will always be the true foundation for peace. ("PM Netanyahu… Opening of the Knesset Winter Session," PMO,www.pmo.gov.il, 11 Oct. 2010)

The PA: "No" Jewish State

The PA refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state because then their demand of the right of return of their so-called refugees from 1948 is over. Even the PA's "moderate" PM, Salam Fayyad, refuses to compromise on this, recently stalking out of a meeting with [Israeli] Deputy FM Danny Ayalon in NY … refusing to add the words 'two peoples' to the phrase 'two states'. Ayalon said the PA won't even agree on words, let alone actions. ("Two States & 'Two Statements' Instead of 'Two Peoples'," Arutz 7, 22 Sept. 2010)

The EU responded to Israel's demand with typical humanistic jargon. A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Ashton said, We support two democratic states living side by side in peace and security. We stress that the future states of Palestine and Israel will need to fully guarantee equality to all their citizens… in the case of Israel, this means whether they are Jewish or not. What a joke. Israeli Arab citizens have the same rights as Jewish citizens now. The PA is the one insisting that no Jews will live in their state, yet the EU is silent about that. ("EU says Israel should guarantee rights for all citizens," JP, 12 Oct. 2010)

God is still hardening hearts

This is why there is still no "Palestine". Since '93, when the Oslo "peace" process was started, Israel has had prime ministers, in particular Barak and Olmert, who have offered the Palestinians almost everything they have asked for, but they always said no.

Efraim Karsh, professor of ME studies, King's College London, said that as soon as resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians was announced, the PLO's executive committee, which runs the PA, agreed to the talks but threatened to pull out if Israel did not extend the freeze on settlements.

Karsh said that while the PLO's English announcement sees the creation of an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel as the outcome of negotiations, the Arabic version does not mention the two-state solution… For while the PLO leadership, since … 1993, has been singing the praises of the two-state solution whenever addressing Israeli or Western audiences, it has consistently denigrated the idea to its own constituents, depicting the process as a transient arrangement required by the needs of the moment that would inexorably lead to the long-cherished goal of Israel's demise. There is therefore, no difference between Arafat and Abbas, or Hamas and the PLO. Not one accepts Israel's right to exist…

Karsh does not view Abbas as a moderate. After the failed Camp David summit in July 2000 and the start of the 2^nd Intifada, Abbas stated that the right of return, the standard Arab euphemism for Israel's destruction through demographic subversion, was a nonnegotiable prerequisite for any settlement. In 2001, Abbas said the Oslo process was the biggest mistake Israel has ever made, enabling the PLO to get worldwide acceptance and respectability while clinging to its own aims.

In a TV speech in May 2005, Abbas labeled the establishment of Israel as an unprecedented historic injustice and vowed never to accept it. He also rejected PM Olmert's offer (fall '07) of a state in 97% of the disputed areas, and categorically dismissed the request to recognize Israel as a Jewish state…insisting instead on full implementation of the right of return.

In August 2009, Abbas' Fatah, the main PLO party, reaffirmed their long-standing commitment to armed struggle as a strategy, not a tactic…This struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is eliminated and Palestine is liberated. ("Not taking yes for an answer," E. Karsh, JP Op-ed, 24 Aug. 2010)

So with whom is Israel to make peace? Why does the West push Israel to sacrifice itself to an implacable enemy? Daniel Doron, Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress director, says it is time to question that an Israeli withdrawal to the arbitrary, indefensible 1967 armistice line, the dismantling of settlements and establishment of an independent Palestinian state…are the way to peace.

Doron wonders that people see Jewish settlement as the original sin of the Arab-Israeli conflict, when in fact, conflict began with World War I. At the end of the war, the corrupt Islamic Ottoman Empire, centered in Turkey and allied with Germany, fell through internal collapse and defeat.

Significantly, the conflict raged for decades before a single settlement was established. Even more significantly, most Palestinian spokesmen make it clear that the conflict will continue until 'settlements' like Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem are obliterated…

What about the claim that Israel's settlements are illegal?

The last legal dispensation of all former Middle Eastern Ottoman Empire territories was determined in the 1922 Sam Remo League of Nations peace conclave. The territories of what was to become Palestine (…now Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan) were allotted to Britain as a mandate, to establish in them a Jewish national home. Arabs accepted this division eagerly, since by ceding their claim to less than 1% of former Ottoman territories, [Palestine] …they were granted 99% of these territories in the ME and North Africa without lifting a finger. Under international law, Arabs have relinquished any claim to the territories included in the British Mandate.

Finally, no 'Palestinian' lands ever existed… 'Palestinian' Arabs considered themselves until recently Syrians. Their separate 'Palestinian' identity is a recent political invention, a reaction to Zionism… ("Alchemists of peace," Daniel Doron, JP Op-ed, 1 Sept. 2010)

Jerusalem, the center of attention

God says, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces… (Zech. 12:2-3a)

The PA's Religious Affairs Minister, in a Friday sermon in a Ramallah mosque with Abbas in attendance, said, Unless the issue of Jerusalem is solved, by it becoming Palestine's capital, there will be no peace. Jerusalem has to return to its owners. We are its owners. ("PA minister threatens war over Jerusalem," PMW, Marcus & Zilberdik, IMRA, 30 Aug. 2010)

Yet JP Arab affairs specialist Khaled Abu Toameh, contends that a majority of East Jerusalem Arabs prefer to live under Israeli rule. Writing for the Hudson Institute, Abu Toameh says, those who think Jerusalem can be split into two … do not know what they are talking about. He wonders if the brilliant international peace brokers have bothered to think of what such a division would do to a geographically small but overcrowded city.

Besides the havoc the division would cause with traffic, borders and checkpoints, what do Jerusalem's 200,000 Arab residents want? For many reasons, Abu Toameh believes most want to live under Israeli rule. As holders of Israeli ID cards, [they] are able to partake of Israeli medical care and other social benefits; they are also able to live in relative safety in a society that obeys the rule of law…

Redividing Jerusalem means bringing either the PA or Hamas into the city. The Arab residents have seen what happened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past 16 years and are not keen to live under a corrupt authority or a radical Islamist entity. ("Jerusalem Arabs don't want to live in 'Palestine'," Israel Today, 4 Oct. 2010)

Christian self-deception over Islam

Although written specifically about US churches, this applies to many churches in the West. William Kilpatrick used to scoff at left-wing writers who warned that Christians were a major threat to American freedoms. Now, he's not so sure. He even wonders if Christians, in their naiveté and desire to be thought tolerant, aren't inadvertently paving the way for an … Islamic theocracy.

Many churches, when reaching out to local mosques, invite an Islamic leader to share about Islam. Naturally, the imams present Islam as a religion of peace and love. And naturally in their desire to appear loving and accepting, Christians lap it up … [and] end up thinking Islam is just another nice, brotherly religion like their own. As a result, they can probably be counted on not to oppose … any Muslim agenda or initiative. Islamic leaders have done a good job of framing their grievances as civil rights issues. This has great appeal to many Christians who see the pursuit of social justice as their main mission…

US Muslim leaders also have an outreach program, 20,000 Dialogues. The main premise of this interfaith initiative, is that an unfavorable opinion of Islam is an uneducated opinion…

The moral equivalence argument appeals to many American Christians because they have been raised on multicultural myths about the essential equality of different cultures and religions. So they eagerly accept Islam as no more a threat than the synagogue down the street. For too many Christians, the essence of Christianity boils down to tolerance and non-judgmentalism. Moreover, Christianity in America has become so mixed up with therapy and pop psychology that, nowadays, the surest sign of election is feeling good about oneself. It is, of course, much easier to feel good … if you can congratulate yourself on being tolerant, sensitive, respectful of differences. ("Lambs to the Slaughter," W. Kilpatrick, FrontPageMagazine, 9 Aug. 2010)

Dealing with the spirit of Persia

Columnist George Will writes that Netanyahu views today's ME as shaped by two developments.

One is the rise of Iran and militant Islam since the 1979 revolution, which led to al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The other … the threat of missile warfare.

Both threaten Israel, along with the campaign to delegitimize Israel in order to extinguish its capacity for self-defense. The creation of Israel restored to Jews the capacity to defend themselves. Yet everytime they do, there is a worldwide chorus of condemnation… Or as Will wrote, Any Israeli self-defense anywhere is automatically judged 'disproportionate.' Israel knows this as it watches Iran.

Obama has wasted a year engaging Iran. Current sanctions are not likely to work. As for deterrence working against a nuclear-armed regime steeped in an ideology of martyrdom, remember that in 1980, Ayatollah Khomeini said: We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism … let this land go up in smoke provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world. Today, Iran's supreme leader Khamenei, declares that Israel is the enemy of Allah. And Iran's former "moderate" president Rafsanjani, calls Israel a one-bomb country.

For Israel 1948 meant: For the first time in 2,000 years, a sovereign Jewish people could defend itself against attack … If Israel strikes Iran, the world will not be able to say it was not warned. ("Netanyahu's warning," G. Will, Washington Post Op-ed, 15 Aug. 2010)

Saphir on prayer

Adolph Saphir, a Hebrew Christian in Great Britain at the end of the 1800s, challenges us with this biblical concept: Prayer is a great reality. It is speaking to the living God. The object of prayer is not that we may speak, but that God may hear. Without this faith, there is no true prayer. (The Lord's Prayer, A. Saphir, Keren Ahvah Meshihit, POB 10382, Jerusalem 91103, Israel)

This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us … we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

1 John 5:14-15

Chuck & Karen Cohen