Shalom from Zion,

Malcolm Hedding, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem's executive director, wrote in an article entitled Signs of the Times, Jesus warned that just prior to his return, cataclysmic upheavals would take place in the world that would defy human explanation and strike fear into the hearts of men. [Luke 21:26] He listed a few recent events: …snow storms in Europe and the USA…and flooding in Australia on a scale that boggles the mind…

He also listed the wholesale murder of Christians throughout the Muslim world, plus the rise of anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel in all international spheres…No wonder He said that we are to watch, pray and…to be ready for his sudden appearing.

Hedding mentioned the huge national debts in many nations, nuclear proliferation and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anxiety levels are increasing everywhere. World leaders are void of real answers and their political theories have proven to be bankrupt. Many are now openly calling for a one-world government, a new global currency and human controls never imagined or seen before. (JP Christian Edition, Feb. 2011, pg. 41, www.jpost.com/ce)

Hedding wrote this before the Middle East Arab uprisings and the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. God warns us about end time birth pangs.

For you know that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thes. 5:2-3

All Israel's fault?

In the book of Revelation, as God's judgments are released on mankind, especially against political and commercial Babylon (chap. 18), much of what John sees and hears is the same as the Tanach (Old Testament) prophecies of God's judgment coming on nations based on how they deal with Israel.

Israel is a scattered sheep. The lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last [the] king of Babylon… Therefore says LORD [YHWH] of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria… The voice of them that… escape …Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of LORD our God, the vengeance of His temple…for [Babylon] has been proud against LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

Jer. 50:17 -18, 28, 29b;
see also vv. 6-11, 14, 24-27, 33-34, 46; chap. 51:5-8, 24, 35-37, 49-50

Even in the midst of the wicked plans of Harlot Babylon and the Anti-Christ, God reigns!

For God has put in their hearts [10 horns/kings] to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast [Anti-Christ], until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Rev. 17:17

Speaking against Israel's borders

Moab and Ammon magnified themselves against [Israel's] border. So God judged them.

This shall they have for their pride, because they have defamed and magnified themselves against the people of LORD of hosts.

Zeph. 2:8-11

This sin exists today in the political arena and in the Church. Politicians and Church leaders call this land "occupied," saying that Jews have no right to live there. They openly slander God and defame His people when they speak against Israel's biblical borders and especially her mountains - where Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria are located.

You shall know that I am LORD, and that I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me, and have multiplied your words against Me: I have heard them.

Ezek. 35:12-13

The Middle East [ME] upheaval - Israel's fault?

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said talks with Israel were at a dead-end. We don't need negotiations anymore… We are requesting the nations…to accept the state of Palestine of 1967… ("Arab countries prepare UN Resolution condemning settlements," ICEJ News, 6 Jan. 2011)

Although there was no "Palestine" in 1967, or at any other time in history, so what? Nazi propaganda czar Goebbels said if you tell a big lie over and over, eventually people believe it.

Biblically viewed, the ME turmoil is probably a result of Arab leaders intensifying pressure on Israel to forsake her God-given inheritance and pressing the UN to declare a Palestinian State at the next annual General Assembly in September. Even if this would not legally result in the creation of "Palestine," Israel would seem to the world even more of a rogue nation. While this does line up with some end-time prophecy, such as Zechariah 12:2-3, what is God's timing?

The ME upheaval and the "peace" process

While it seems clear to most Israelis that the current ME turmoil should put the "peace" process on the shelf until the smoke clears, that is not the way it appears to some very influential people. Thank God, Israeli Prime Minister [PM] Bibi Netanyahu is not one of them. He said the violent overthrow of ME regimes means, We cannot simply say We are signing a peace agreement, close our eyes and say We did it, because we do not know…that the peace will indeed be honored.

The people with whom Israel signs a peace agreement today may not be in power tomorrow, and could be replaced by people with a totally different agenda. One example is Gaza. Israel withdrew to bolster Palestinian Authority [PA] leader Abbas' moderate regime. Yet Palestinians saw the withdrawal as Allah's victory for Hamas, and voted them into power. ("…Tunisia coup shows why Palestinian state is a bad idea," Israel Today, 19 Jan. 2011)

Regarding the reality behind Egypt's turmoil, the JP's Caroline Glick called the US administration clueless. We hope such is the case and is not some darker plan of Obama's to strengthen Islamic fundamentalism - which is already a fruit from his clueless foreign policy decisions.

Obama's abandoning Egypt's President Mubarak was said to be because of his dictatorial rule. Yet what do the people want? A Pew opinion survey in June 2010, showed that 59% of Egyptians support Islamists, 50% back Hamas, 30% Hizbullah, and 20% al Qaida. And 95% would welcome Islamic influence over their politics! Also, 82% support executing adulterers by stoning, 77% support whipping and cutting hands off thieves and 84% support executing any Muslim who changes his religion. So if Mubarak's military rule is replaced by Islamic totalitarianism, the US' greatest Arab ally could become its greatest enemy, and Israel's peace partner could again become its strongest foe.

In Israel, many were very concerned with the events in Egypt, but what upset Israelis was America's response. Most of Israel's media labeled that response as irrational, irresponsible, catastrophic, stupid, blind, treacherous, and terrifying because of the disastrous consequences for the US' other authoritarian Arab allies, for Israel and for the US itself…Does the US really fail to understand what will happen to its strategic interests in the ME if the Muslim Brotherhood [MB] either forms the next regime or is the power behind the throne…? See: http://www.c-span.org/Events/Hearing-Examined-the-Role-of-Muslim-Brotherhood-in-Middle-East-Politics/10737420863-1/

In 2005, the US pressed Egypt to hold open elections. The MB got a significant portion of the vote. Then the US pressed the PA to have open and free elections in 2006. Hamas won easily.

Glick sees the US trapped between two irrational worldviews. The first is a democracy agenda and its concomitant support for open elections. While President Bush saw the dangers of the democracy deficit in the Arab world, his idea that free elections would solve the problem of Arab radicalism and instability was completely wrong…Bush's belief was based on a narcissistic view of Western values as universal. This dangerous and self-deceptive view is common to many in the West.

The other paradigm charming US foreign policy shapers is Obama's foreign policy backbone - anti-colonialism…with its foundational assumption that the US has no right to criticize non-Westerners. It has caused him to not support pro-Western protesters seeking the overthrow of the Iranian regime, has guided his courtship of the Syrian, Turkish and Iranian regimes and his unwillingness…to help the March 14 movement in Lebanon. Moreover, this view legitimizes the non-Western world's grievances towards the West, thus causing Obama to back the Arab world in its campaign against Israel…

America's behavior towards Egypt proves that Israel cannot make further territorial sacrifices…in exchange for US security guarantees. ("Clueless in Washington," C. Glick, JP Op-ed, 1 Feb. 2011)

A leading columnist of Israel's largest daily newspaper blasted Obama for selling Mubarak for a pot of lentils, and for not understanding the ME…Our conclusion in Israel needs to be that the man sitting in the White House is liable to 'sell' us overnight …The thought that the US might not stand by our side in the day of need causes chills. God help us. ("Egypt's Western-assisted slide toward Islamic Revolution," Israel Today, 6 Feb. 2011)

In February, left-leaning Western media and intellectual elites …averted their gaze as Sheikh Y. Qaradawi, the MB's spiritual guide spoke to millions of Egyptians in Cairo. On Qaradawi's TV show on Al Jazeera, he regularly preaches international jihad and genocide of Jewry to millions of fans worldwide.

Qaradawi emphasized the Islamic aspects of Egypt's new situation, and as millions shouted  Amen, and Allahu Akbar, he called for a Muslim conquest of Jerusalem - that is, for the destruction of Israel. He also demanded Egypt's army open its border with Gaza.

Western liberalism was silent or fooled. For example, the NY Times' article on this event, labeled Qaradawi as a champion of democracy and pluralism… Yet these same people who exalt Qaradawi as a liberal hero are absolutely adamant that the revolutions now raging throughout the Muslim world are a mere sideshow to the region's chief drama…Who cares if the Arabs are ruled by tyrants, democrats, jihadists, or fascists? The only thing that matters is that Palestine is free of Israeli occupation…

It is this obsessive campaign against Israel that explains the so-called ME Quartet's [the US, UN, EU and Russia] insistence that the most urgent item on the international agenda is coercing Israel to surrender land and rights to the PA. We have nothing against a Palestinian State - just not on the land that God has given to His people! (Ezek. 28:25-26; 36:23-24; Mal. 1:5)

Not all unity is from God. A Satan-inspired unity is arising over the issue of Israel, as EU leaders are unified in their firm conviction that the so-called 'peace process' must be reinvigorated, and at the same time Obama and his advisors are absolutely committed to coercing Israel to block Jews from building homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem and ensuring that everyone is clear that Jews have no legitimate right to our capital city and historic heartland…

By waging its war against Israel through Palestinian proxies, the West threatens itself…By focusing their attention entirely on Israel, the West ignores what the jihadists have been declaring, that destroying Israel is but the first skirmish in their great war. Their ultimate aim is the conquest of what remains of Western civilization. ("The West's proxy war against the Jews," C. Glick, JP Op-ed, 28 Feb. 2011)

The Moslem Brotherhood speaks

Their motto: Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

A leading MB cleric said Egyptians should prepare for war against Israel. Another added, Kill Jews - to the very last one.

The previously mentioned Sheikh Qaradawi has openly said Allah will deal with Israel and the Jews by killing them all. He also said Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews. ("MB's Message Same as Hamas: Kill Jews," Arutz 7, 1 Feb. 2011)

A London based MB Islamic scholar said, Every night when I go to bed, I pray to wake up the next day to see Israel wiped off the map. ("MB leader praises Ahmadinejad," ICEJ News, 8 Mar. 2011)

Another MB leader, M. Akef, said the US spends billions of dollars waging war on Muslim leaders, the traditions of its faith and its ideas. They even wage war against female circumcision [genital mutilation], a practice current in 36 countries, which has been prevalent since the time of the pharaohs.

MB's official web site sees Jihad - holy war - as Islam's most important tool in a gradual takeover, beginning with Muslim nations, then conquering the West, with a global Islamic state as the ultimate objective.

The MB's greatest asset? Gullible Westerners. It was the same syndrome that enabled the same segment of Western opinion to applaud Ayatollah Khomeini's moderation as he gave daily news conferences near Paris in 1978 while waiting for his religious revolutionaries and their yuppie helpers to overthrow the shah. ("Gullible amnesia," Arnaud De Borchgrave, UPI Commentary, www.upi.com, 22 Feb. 2011)

Truth from Zion

While not perfect, PM Netanyahu is God's choice to lead Israel at this time. At Intercessors For Israel, we consistently pray for him. Please join with us by signing up to receive IFI's Friday Prayer Alerts at www.ifi.org.il.

Speaking to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Netanyahu warned that a regime change in Egypt could be the harbinger for a new gateway to Iran, and that although the hope for democracy and a gradual stable peace process in Egypt is what Israel desires to see, this is not the only scenario possible …

I assure you, Iranian leaders are not interested in…freedom, liberalization or reform… Iran is hoping for Egypt to become another Gaza, run by radical forces that oppose everything the democratic world stands for.

He said recent history shows many cases in which extreme Islamist elements abused the rules of the democratic game to gain power and impose anti-democratic regimes. It happened in Iran …in Lebanon, and in the Gaza Strip.

Regarding the "peace" process, Bibi said Israel must maintain its security by striving for 'a stable peace'. He added that Israelis need 'watchful eyes that recognize reality'. ("Netanyahu: Regime Change in Egypt a Gateway to Iran?" Arutz 7, 4 Feb. 2011)

Charles Moore of Britain's The Telegraph, interviewed Bibi. Asked about his reaction to the recent events in the ME, Bibi said it is riveting when people defy the power of dictators, and there is no question what we want and what your readers want. There is a question whether what we want is what we get.

Netanyahu cites the Russian and Iranian Revolutions as ones that went wrong, the collapse of the Soviet bloc as one which went right. He points out that the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon five years ago started well, but today the country is more or less controlled by Hizbollah. I am watchful.

Bibi admitted to being disappointed with the West's attitude to Iran. He warns about the fatal combination…of militant Islam and nuclear weapons, especially as fundamentalist Moslems so often say that their enemies prefer life and they prefer death.

An Iran with nuclear weapons would create new threats. It could control the world's oil supplies and  spawn a nuclear arms race in the ME. Iranian conventional ballistic missiles already have a range which includes western Europe: It is extraordinarily dangerous for my country, but also for your country. He sees Israel as a forward position of Western values…

Moore challenges him, saying,  People accuse Israel of taking advantage of the situation by stalling the peace process and avoiding a clear line. Netanyahu sharply reminds me of his own position, Israel…recognises the need for a nation state for Palestinians, but unless they recognise Israel's right to be the Jewish state, there is no basis for a discussion of borders. The Palestinians provide no education for peace. Their school textbooks preach hatred and the public squares under the PA are named after the murderers of Israelis…

 But take settlements, I respond, You yourself say they are a relatively minor incursion (less than 2%) of the whole, disputed territory. Why do you persist in the face of world condemnation? …He comes straight back with a history - the Sudetenland in the late 1930s. People, especially leading British media, considered Czechoslovakia's possession of these German-speaking areas was a barrier to peace with Hitler. It didn't work out quite like that, he dryly points out.

Bibi sees the ganging-up on Israel over the settlements as a classic example of changing the terms of the argument…There were no Jewish settlements in the West Bank before Israel was attacked in…1967, So what was all that about? Israel proper remains disputed by her enemies. Even [PA] moderates don't say that if the settlements end, we'll make peace with Israel… ("The British worry me…Netanyahu," C. Moore, The Telegraph Op-ed, 26 Feb. 2011)

Speaking to foreign press representatives, Netanyahu blasted the world's view of who really wants peace. You have to have a lot of chutzpa [extreme gall] to say Israelis do not want peace while 60,000 rockets are aimed at our houses and cities. ("Israel's main concern: Iran, Iran and Iran," FoxNews.com, 11 Jan. 2011)

Bibi took part in a YouTube interview, answering questions from all over the world. Asked about the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria, he said, My name is Benjamin; the first Benjamin, the son of Jacob, walked these hills 4,000 years ago, so we have some connection with this land…Any one in his right mind knows that this is part of the ancestral Jewish homeland; it's in the Bible.

As to making Judea and Samaria Judenrein, Netanyahu said Israel cannot and will not kick out 350,000 or 400,000 Jews from their homes, adding that many Jews were already kicked out from homes in Arab nations around the time of the birth of the state of Israel. The difference is that Israel fully absorbed and integrated the Jewish refugees that fled here. The Arabs have worked hard to maintain the Palestinians' refugee status and condition as a political weapon against Israel. ("Netanyahu puts Israeli-Arab conflict in proper perspective," Israel Today, 1 Apr. 2011)

Do Palestinians really want peace?

Israeli analyst Yoram Ettinger said the issue plaguing the peace process, is the teaching of Jew-hatred in PA schools. Nothing is more important in identifying human vision and ideology than that which we adults teach our children. The PA has developed the most insidious hate education anywhere in the world…That is most reflective of who Abbas really is. Not what he whispers in the ears of gullible, naive Israeli and Western leaders, but what PA schools teach their children. ("Expert: 'Palestinian Papers' took focus away from true problem," Israel Today, 1 Feb. 2011)

In mid-February, PA and Arab leaders were furious at a US veto of a UN Security Council [SC] resolution declaring the Jewish presence in the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria as illegal. The other 14 SC members voted yes, agreeing to label West Bank Jewish communities as the main obstacle to ME peace, and demanding that Israel stop letting Jews build there…

Israel thanked the US…for not joining in the wild condemnation of something the UN's predecessor, the League of Nations, was clearly in favor of, namely, close Jewish settlement in all of the territories west of the Jordan River.

However the veto was not a "yes" for Jewish settlements. The US vetoed the resolution only because they do not see the UN as the place to settle this issue. America's UN Ambassador Susan Rice immediately said, We reject…the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity…Israeli settlement activity in territories occupied in '67 has undermined Israel's security and corroded hopes for peace and stability in the region. But note Bibi's comment about '67 in the previous section.

Yet PA leader Abbas claimed victory because 14 other SC members - including Britain, France, and Germany - had all voted in favor. The resolution also had 130 co-sponsors in the UN's General Assembly. Abbas said, with that kind of support, Palestinians are determined to not resume peace negotiations with Israel until Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and the eastern half of Jerusalem comes to a complete halt. ("Arabs furious after US vetoes resolution on Jewish settlements," Israel Today, 20 Feb. 2011)

A JP editorial reveals that not only has the PA not wanted to renew negotiations with Israel, the opposite is the case. Top PA negotiator N. Sha'ath said recently,  We want the EU countries to recognize a Palestinian unity government that would include Hamas. Including Hamas would help boost Fatah's waning popularity by satisfying the Palestinian people's demand to end the rift between Gaza and the West Bank. But this is hardly the responsible Palestinian leadership with whom Israel aspires to sign a lasting accord. And it is highly disturbing that Hamas, which states in its charter that… so-called peaceful solutions, and international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement, enjoys such popularity among Palestinians. ("Peace in a volatile region," JP Editorial, 8 Mar. 2011)

Demonic snares of 2011

If it had not been LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say…when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick… Blessed be LORD, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Psa. 124:1-8

The enemy has set a number of snares for Israel in 2011. The Third Intifada, a Facebook campaign, has summoned millions of Arabs from across the ME to march into Israel and forcibly attempt to implement a de facto 'Right of Return,' the Arab euphemism for the mass immigration of several million Arabs. The date…[is] May 15, the anniversary of what Arabs refer to as the Nakba or 'Tragedy', the date of the establishment of the State of Israel. ("Next Arab Facebook Campaign: Get Millions to Invade Israel," Arutz 7, 30 Mar. 2011)

And since the organizers want old men, women and children to lead the march, if some die as Israel defends herself, the global response will not be nearly as calm as what we see today against Syria, or Egypt or Bahrain. Intercede for this demonic plan to come to nothing (Psa. 129:5).

The next snare is September's UN General Assembly annual meeting. Dr. Aaron Lerner writes, Here is the argument: If PM Netanyahu doesn't get in front of the ball, the UN will declare a sovereign Palestinian state encompassing the entire West Bank (including east Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip in a few months. Sanctions will follow to force Israel to respect the sovereignty of 'Palestine' in all facets of its expression.

The assertion that, if created, a sovereign Palestinian state would live side by side in peace with Israel is faith-based rather than logic-based, so debating it is doomed to failure…

[Bibi], the argument goes, thus has no choice but to propose a sovereign Palestinian state to pre-empt these developments.

Here's the problem: None of the above addresses [the fact] that a sovereign Palestinian state would inevitably serve as the launching pad for a deadly assault to destroy Israel…There's a wall-to-wall consensus in Israel on this point. And polls of Palestinians show that they do indeed see the creation of, their state, as one more step towards the goal of Israel's demise.

Since a sovereign state, once created, continues to exist even if it violates the agreements and understandings that were the basis for its coming into being, the verbiage that accompanies the creation of the state can't overcome this fundamental problem. ("PM Netanyahu needs a Plan," Dr. A. Lerner, IMRA, 4 Mar. 2011)

Whose land is it?

For Bible believers, the answer must be that for His glory God gave this land to His people Israel forever, as even the New Testament declares, Now I say that Messiah Yeshua was a servant of the Jews for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers: [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] (Rom. 15:8; cp. Lev. 25:23; Joel 3:1-2)

Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee Netanyahu said, Jews have been within the broad borders of the Land of Israel… [for] thousands of years. When Palestinians talk about historic rights they should remember they have been here a shorter time. The rights of Jews to Hebron and Beit El, Rachel's Tomb and Shiloh, are…much more significant. These places should remain in our hands in any arrangement. ("…Hebron, Beit El, Rachel's Tomb, Shiloh should remain in our hands…", IMRA, 7 Jan. 2010)

Former diplomat and politician Moshe Arens, asked, Who are the people…who have gone ballistic over the [Israeli] education minister's announcement that [Israeli] students should be taken on heritage trips to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron? … They seem to have forgotten the very foundation of Zionism: that the Jewish State is located in the Land of Israel just because it is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem are icons of the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel - constant reminders to one and all that the Land of Israel is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, who have returned after 2,000 years in exile.

They seem to have fallen under the spell of the 1967 borders. They are infatuated by a Green Line drawn like a scar across the Land of Israel. Yet the Green Line is nothing more than the armistice line agreed between representatives of Israel and Jordan…April 24, 1949. It was never intended to be a border between two nations ….The armistice left the biblical heartland of ancient Israel, the mountains of Samaria and Judea, the major historical and biblical sites of the Jewish people, east of the Green Line.

Supporters of the 'two-state solution,' who insist Israel withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines and consider Judea and Samaria to be occupied territory, seem to want to sever the connection between the Jewish people and the sites that are reminders of [their] connection to the Land of Israel. ("Jews' connection to the land must not be severed…" M. Arens, Ha'aretz Op-ed, 22 Feb. 2011)

Lastly, in March, a committee of experts from several Arab countries met in Amman, Jordan, to gather documents that will be brought before the International Court of Justice in an attempt to start legal actions against Israel's archeological excavations in Jerusalem. What did Israel do that requires this action? Israel has used Biblical texts to support their national narrative… ("Islamic scholars to sue Israel over archeology," ICEJ News, 17 Mar. 2011)

And your eyes shall see, and you shall say,
LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

Mal. 1:5

Chuck & Karen Cohen