Shalom from Jerusalem

Israel's kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is home - but at the cost of over 1,000 terrorists released. Libya's dictator Gaddafi is dead. Syria's President Assad kills multitudes of his people. The US will pull troops out of Iraq by year's end leaving an opening for Iran to exploit. Iran also moves closer to developing nuclear weapons while making credible threats against Israel's existence. In November, the UN Security Council might decide to divide God's land to create a Palestinian state. The EU banking crisis heats up along with waking volcanoes. The world's economic situation destabilizes, and earthquakes do their demolition. Anti-Semitism increases, as does anti-Christian persecution.

Where is peace found in this time of shaking? In Israel's God and Messiah Yeshua. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters…be troubled, though the mountains shake… (Psalms 46:1-3) We trust His revealed Word on who He is and what He does and will do. And that is the Enemy's target.

Today's real battle

God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

Num. 23:19

The battle - which will surely continue until Messiah's return - is over the Bible's validity. Is it the inspired Word from the Creator of all, or is it no more "God-breathed" than Shakespeare?

The Adversary's first attack was a success. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which YHWH God had made. And he said unto the woman, Has God said…?  (Genesis 3:1a) His strategy is to show the Bible as unreliable, or a hoax - or even better - just a wonderful book. After all, says he, there are other ways of looking at reality, such as the Koran, New Age texts, philosophy, etc. If believed, he has taken ground from his foe, the Bible's Author.

Lawfare - the battle over the legitimacy of modern day Israel's right to exist - is also a battle over God's Word. The Bible has little importance to an unbelieving world - but to Yeshua's followers? He must be grieved that many in His Body reject the restoration of His people to His Land for His glory (Ezekiel 36:16-36)! God has promised over 200 times to give the land of Israel to the people of Israel. I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:36b) How can believers question or ignore it?

Do they think He either meant it then changed His mind, or He never meant it in the first place? They really are saying, Yes, God swore by an oath over 40 times to give this land to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the Jewish people, but that was before the Cross. This false theology wipes out all Old Testament [Tanach] promises - except, of course, those that are gutted and then spiritualized to apply to the Church.

The faith of the Church is damaged when she loses a unified understanding of the Bible. If one rejects pre-Matthew scripture as the Word of God (rejecting God's promises to His people is just that), then in what God does one believe? By denying Messiah's ties to Israel and God's promises to them, what remains is "another Yeshua and another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:4)!

For Yeshua to be the world's Savior, He must also be Israel's promised Anointed King. If He has not confirmed the promises made to Israel's forefathers, including the promise of the land (Romans 15:8), then He is not the Lion of Judah, the Root and Offspring of David (Revelation 5:5; 22:16). Who is it, then, that some Christians are serving?

Such a degrading of the Tanach opens a door for all kinds of deception. With 75% of God's self-revelation undermined, or seen as less valid than the New Testament, how can one judge truth from error? If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalms 11:3)

Also, what we call "theological dyslexia" develops. Instead of interpreting Tanach prophecies as God the Son interpreted them, the "dyslexic" Church gets it backwards. Yeshua always insisted on a literal fulfillment of the prophetic word. Yet today, many are like His disciples whom He chided with, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: (Luke 24:25).

This verse's context applies a literal fulfillment of the Tanach prophecies in relation to His first coming, as opposed to any symbolic or "spiritual" interpretation. To "spiritualize" the prophetic word in preparation for His literal second coming is to fall back into the same error. This "dyslexia" is encouraged by Satan to hinder the restoration of Israel - physically and then spiritually, so as to subvert the Lord's Return.

Well worth watching - www.GivePeaceAChance.info

"Give Peace A Chance," a 15 minute documentary about a new vision for peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the uncovering of formerly classified minutes from the San Remo peace conference of 1920, which explains the legal rights under international law of the Jews as well as of the Palestinians.

Palestinians want peace?

Arab Israeli Moslem, Khaled Abu Toameh, writing months before Palestinian Authority [PA] President Abbas asked the UN's Security Council [SC] to recognize a 'Palestinian State', warned about the real mindset of the people whom the world wants living side by side with Israel in peace.

Palestinians are divided today into two camps…The radical camp is headed by Hamas and other extremist groups, whose message is:  We want all the land, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. We want to replace Israel with an Islamic state… 

The less radical camp, headed by the PLO and a minority of secular Palestinians, is also saying that it wants 100%, but only of the pre-1967 lines - meaning the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. And both camps declare that they will not make any concessions to Israel on territorial demands.

Therefore, why proceed with a 'peace' process? The radicals do not want to negotiate with Israel because they do not recognize its right to exist and believe it should be wiped off the face of the earth. The so-called moderates say they are ready to return to the negotiating table, but only if Israel agrees in advance to give them 100% of their demands. Yet the central problem is that even if Israel does accept all their demands, neither camp is willing to commit to ending the conflict.

As the 'moderate' PA knows Israel will not and cannot accept all their demands, they have decided…to negotiate with the international community about the establishment of a Palestinian state… hoping the world imposes a solution on Israel. And so, Abbas' UN gambit. ("Palestinians Cannot Accept Less than 100%," K. Abu Toameh, www.hudson-ny.org, 12 July 2011)

A mid-July face-to-face opinion poll in Arabic of more than 1,000 Palestinians in Judea and Samaria did nothing to encourage Israelis that peace was near. Asked about US President Obama's vision of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people, 61% rejected it, with 66% saying the real goal should be to start with a two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state.

Other results were equally sobering: 72% denied thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem; 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers; 53% favored teaching songs about hating Jews in PA schools; 73% agreed with a quote from Hamas' charter of the need to kill Jews hiding behind stones and trees. ("6 in 10 Palestinians reject 2-state solution, survey finds," JP, 15 July 2011)

Why do many Palestinians think this way? One reason is found in this report of a kindergarten run by their 'moderate' PA. An end of term program had 5-year-olds acting out scenes of terror and death…Parents were moved to tears on seeing their children pretend to die as 'martyrs'… Songs were also sung, encouraging martyrdom' and bloodshed to free the land of Palestine. ("PA Teaches 5-Year-Olds to Die for Allah," Arutz 7, 17 Aug. 2011)

The Obama administration vs. Israel

US Secretary of Defense R. Gates charged PM Netanyahu with being an ingrate for failing to accept Obama's call for a peace deal based on the June 1967 armistice lines. Hebrew University Prof. Shlomo Slonim, reacting, said, Apparently, it is expected that a country benefiting from American largesse will agree to surrender territory, rights and history in return.

Slonim noted that no previous US president asked this of Israel. US pronouncements always emphasized that negotiations and any deal, was a matter for the parties to agree upon. ("Obama, the 1967 lines and Jerusalem," S. Slonim, JP Op-ed, 13 Sept. 2011)

Truth vs. lies at the UN

The anti-God activity taking place daily at the UN recalls the Tower of Babel. Yet God has His spokesmen even there.

In a debate in July, Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor, asked the PA's UN observer Riyad Mansour, On behalf of whom will you present a resolution [for statehood] in September? Abbas or …the Hamas terrorist organization, which advances a charter calling for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews?

Prosor accused many who vocally support Palestinian interests, of losing their voice, hesitating, and mumbling when it comes to discussing Israel's vital interests - its recognition as a Jewish state and its right to live within safe and secure borders. ("Ambassador Prosor: Abbas' UN Ploy a 'False Idol'," Arutz 7, 27 July 2011)

In October Prosor, at a UN-SC debate on The situation in the ME, including the Palestinian question, said, the Arab world blames Israel for all its woes while…for generations, it has failed miserably to address the needs of its own people…

From 1948 until 1967, the West Bank was part of Jordan; Gaza was part of Egypt. The Arab world did not lift a finger to create a Palestinian state. And it sought Israel's annihilation when not a single settlement stood anywhere in the West Bank or Gaza.

And today, With their world in flames, Arab leaders continue to blame Israel and the West for all their problems… ("Israel's UN Ambassador Separates Lies from Truth," Arutz 7, 25 Oct. 2011)

At the UN's annual September meeting, President Obama made some excellent remarks about Israel's situation - even if they were likely for political gain. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions… Peace depends on compromise among peoples who must live together long after our speeches are over…

While repeating his support for an independent 'Palestine', he stressed America's commitment to Israel's security, adding, Let's be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. He also mentioned the hate-filled anti-Jewish indoctrination of ME Arabs, and publicly said that the Land of Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

PA officials were livid, saying Obama had 'betrayed' them.

Israel Today said, While most Israelis were appreciative of Obama's speech…there was still skepticism as to his motives. The issue of Israel is expected to play an even larger role in [2012's] presidential election that it did in 2008. Aware of that, Obama's media advisers contacted supportive Jewish leaders in the US and urged them to get their communities to watch Obama's speech. ("Obama's approval soars in Israel after UN speech," Israel Today, 22 Sept. 2011)

Bibi Netanyahu at the UN

While not agreeing with everything Israel's Prime Minister says or does, we do see him as God's choice to lead Israel today. His boldness to declare truth, in comparison to most current world leaders, is in itself a sign that God has raised him up for a time like this (Esther 4:14).

On September 23^rd at the UN, Bibi noted some positive Israeli contributions to modern society, adding that Israel's hope for peace never wanes… I know this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland… was branded shamefully as racism. It was here in 1980… that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt…was denounced! And it's here; year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation… more often than all the nations of the world combined…

He called the UN, the theater of the absurd. It doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament. And today, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon presides over the UN-SC … a terror organization over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security. You couldn't make this up.

I came here to speak the truth. The truth is… that Israel wants peace… [and] that in the ME at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security… The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace.

Today, the ME is a very dangerous place. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It's determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt… and Jordan. It has poisoned many Arab minds against the Jews and Israel, and against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Some say that to halt militant Islam's growth, Israel must make more concessions. Leave the territory, peace will be advanced. Moderates will be strengthened; radicals will be kept at bay. Don't worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job. Yet truth says, We've tried it. It hasn't worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it, and ignited a terrorist onslaught that claimed 1000 Israeli lives. PM Olmert in 2008, made an even more sweeping offer. President Abbas didn't even respond to it.

Israel also withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. Did that calm the Islamic storm? No, it brought it closer and made it stronger. Hezbollah and Hamas fired 1000s of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. In both areas, moderates were devoured by radicals, and international troops did not stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace, but, we got war. We got Iran, which, through its proxy Hamas, promptly kicked out the PA…

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza…

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities… What's to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? …Israelis are prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we're not prepared to have another Gaza there. That's why we need real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us…

Bibi mentioned his oft repeated public vision for peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizing Israel as the Jewish state, which the UN decreed 64 years ago. Don't you think it's about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than one million Arab citizens, yet PA officials have declared their state won't allow any Jews in it… That's ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That's racism.

He said Abbas had just said, "the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements." Yet the conflict raged for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Did Abbas mean the 'settlements' of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jaffa…when he said Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. That's 1948 - not '67! The core of the conflict… has always been and unfortunately remains refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border…

How will Israel know that peace is near? When the Palestinians take Israel's security requirements seriously and…stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland…

Bibi closed, saying President Abbas, I extend…the hand of Israel in peace…We are both sons of Abraham…We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah (9:2), The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Let that light be the light of peace. (www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng)

Palestinian fables at the UN

Abbas had given an inflammatory and deceiving speech. Then he officially asked the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state… on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He called Israel an occupying power who has committed ethnic cleansing… and said Israel is conducting a war of aggression in Gaza… yet he never mentioned the rockets, missiles, suicide bombers and massacres against Israel, perpetrated by people he honors, naming streets and schools after them.

He said the growth of settlements destroys any chance of peace, and that it is impossible for us to accept unilateral actions on the part of the Israeli government, ignoring his own unilateral action at that precise moment. ("Abbas at UN: Israel a Colonial Power Since its Inception," Arutz 7, 25 Sept. 2011)

IMRA's Dr. Lerner noted the stark contrast between Netanyahu's and Abbas' words. Abbas: I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him).

Lerner: …no mention of a Jewish connection to the land (ok - he mentions Jesus, but PA propagandists somehow manage to skirt around that he was a Jew.)… (Dr. A. Lerner, IMRA Commentary)

Jonathan Tobin, of Commentary Magazine, said that Bibi's accusation that Palestine would be Judenrein, and his exposing of PA laws prohibiting sale of land to Jews (a crime punishable by death) are… accurate reflections of a Nazi-like hate that permeates the PA.

Tobin adds, The Palestinians don't want to negotiate; they want the world to impose a dictat on Israel that will not guarantee the security or the rights of the Jewish state or even to agree to finally end the conflict. ("No Moral Equivalence Between Abbas & Netanyahu," J. Tobin, Commentary Magazine, 23 Sept. 2011)

Thank God for the anti-aliyah

The biggest roadblock to peace is the 'anti-aliyah', known as the 'right of return' of the so-called Palestinian 'refugees', which were the fruit of Arab nations attacking the new-born State of Israel in 1948. Though most have died, the number has been inflated with 60 plus years of foreign-born descendants (about five million). The demand is for their 'return', not to a Palestinian state, but to the Israel that remains after the establishment of 'Palestine'!

Jonathan Halevi writes that some people say that the PA will ultimately relinquish its demand for the 'right of return'…Others believe that Palestinian consensus is intransigent on the issue… that after an Israeli withdrawal to the '67 lines, they will continue to demand full implementation of the 'right of return', with the goal being the demographic destruction of the State of Israel.

This way-over-the-top demand is one no PA leader dare change. In 2008 Abbas approved uncompromising adherence to this 'right' in legislation passed by the PA Parliament. Provisions of the 'Right of Return' Law block any possibilities of compromise and political flexibility for… negotiators and prohibit even the slightest amendment of this right. ("Palestinian 'Right of Return' Law Leaves No Room for Political Flexibility," J. Halevi, Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs Blog, 26 Oct. 2011)

This PA demand is an answer to prayer - a God orchestrated roadblock stopping even the most left-wing of Israeli politicians from agreeing to the establishment of a 'Palestine'.

Dateline: the Middle East

The 'Arab Spring', is seen by naive Western leaders as a positive development to bring true Western-style democratic freedom to the masses of the ME. But many analysts, and some top Israeli officials, quickly warned that we could get an 'Islamic Winter'.

Tunisia was the first country…to oust its long-time dictator. On October 23^rd it held its first free election…Voter turnout was massive at 90%. The results surprised many in the West, but they shouldn't have. The Ennahda Party will control the parliament.

Ennahda is labeled by Western media as a 'moderate' Islamic group, but that is misleading. They backed Iran's takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and called for attacks on US targets during the Gulf War. Their ideology matches Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: to impose Islamic law on the whole world.

The Ennahda's leader said if his group won, they would impose 'moderate' Sharia [Islamic] Law on what until now was one of the Arab world's most progressive nations.

Post-Gaddafi Libya will also see Sharia as the 'basic source' of its civil laws, said interim leader Abdul-Jalil, who has already altered some laws, such as banning local banks from charging interest and making it legal to again practice polygamy.

Predictions see the Muslim Brotherhood, the grandfather of all extremist Islamic groups in the region, as the over-all winner in soon to be held Egyptian elections. The Islamic spirit is also consolidating power in Turkey and Lebanon… and among the Palestinians.

General Eisenberg, Israel's Home Front Commander, warned months ago that the the Arab Spring increases the likelihood of all out war, that might involve weapons of mass destruction, as the radical powers taking over many nations are driven by messianic ideologies that compel them to destroy Israel in order to usher in a new Islamic golden age. ("Islamic Winter: Tunisian and Libyan 'liberation' leads to Sharia," Israel Today, 24 Oct. 2011)

Iranian Update

Iranian authorities have seized and destroyed 1000s of Bibles after a Shi'ite cleric issued an urgent warning about the spread of Christianity. Elam, a British ministry supplying bibles to the Persian speaking world, noted that, at the time of the Islamic revolution in 1979, there were fewer than 500 known Iranian Christians from a Muslim background. Today the most conservative estimate is that there are at least 100,000… ("Iran Launches Bible Burning Campaign," Intercessors For Israel Alert, 31 Aug. 2011)

Iran continues to march towards nuclear weapons and regional hegemony. Law Prof. M. Z. Rosensaft, said with the West focused on Israeli-Palestinian 'peace', recent remarks by President Ahmadinejad have largely gone unnoticed. In August, he ranted, Iran believes whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime. The next day, he said to Israel, You have no place in our region and among our nations, and you will not be able to continue your ignominious life on even a small part of the Palestinian territories.

Rosensaft: Ahmadinejad should have been held to account under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide long ago, as UN Resolution 96 (I), defines genocide as a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups… His push to destroy Israel fits that specific category.

Another violation is direct and public incitement to commit genocide. By continued dismissal of the Holocaust as a 'myth' and a 'lie' invented to justify the creation of the State of Israel, Ahmadinejad has been advocating the annihilation of Israel and its Jewish citizens for years… ("Ahmadinejad is the real threat," M. Z. Rosensaft, JP Op-ed, 22 Sept. 2011)

There is an increasingly fierce contest for regional leadership between Shiite Iran and Sunni Turkey. Iran's top cleric, Ayatollah Khamenei, just said, Turkey must radically rethink its policies on Syria, the NATO missile shield and promoting Muslim secularism in the Arab world. Turkish statesmen are acting in line with the goals of America. ("Iran tells Turkey: Change tack or face trouble," Israel Hayom, 9 Oct. 2011)

Turkey's prophetic shift

Are we seeing in Turkey the stage for Ezekiel 38-39 to at least partly come to pass before Messiah's return? A JP editorial said that while Israelis are shocked at Turkish PM Erdogan's escalating assaults on Israel, the relationship has been crumbling "ever since Erdogan's Islamist party's electoral victory of 2002. That marked a strategic shift in Turkey's agenda, and there was little Israel could do about it, short of acceding to Erdogan's every whim…

Erdogan is ambitious and driven… He doesn't bother disguising his aspirations to return his country to the glory days of the Ottoman sultanate to become the regional and Islamic pivotal power. To do that, he must demonstrate leadership in striking out against the Arab/Muslim world's [bane] - Israel. ("Turkey's shift," JP Editorial, 7 Sept. 2011)

Encouragement from a friend of Israel

Regardless of one's views of Glenn Beck, he is a proven friend of Israel. Caroline Glick, writing about his recent "Stand with Israel" rally, said many world leaders and other famous people profess enduring friendship with Israel, yet once the platitudes are over, they proceed to denounce Israel's policies and to deny its basic rights. For instance, President Obama begins all his statements on Israel by proclaiming his enduring friendship… Then he tells us to deny Jewish property rights, accept indefensible borders, or desist from defending ourselves from aggression…

While in Jerusalem, Beck told a group of US Christian Zionists and Israelis, to disregard the 'convenient' lies about Israel and embrace the truth. In Israel, you can find people who will stand against incredible odds, against the entire tide of global opinion, for what is right and good and true. Israel is not a perfect country. No country is perfect. But it tries, and it is courageous.

Glick said what was most remarkable about Beck's message was its rarity. Beck did not say anything factually inaccurate… Yet despite his honesty, and reasonable interpretation of Israel's strategic and diplomatic circumstances, Beck's is a voice in the wilderness. One almost never comes across a foreigner - or even an Israeli - who is willing to speak such basic truths in public…

Beck: The grand councils of the earth condemn Israel… Syria slaughters its own citizens. The grand councils are silent… These …so-called diplomats, condemn Israel… because it is convenient. Everyone does it. In some countries, it's a crime not to. Diplomats are afraid, so they submit. They surrender to falsehood. The… sacrifice of the truth is a small price to pay. What difference does it make if we beat up on little Israel?

Glick says, Christian Zionists - like Jewish religious Zionists - are unmoved by the media's intimidation because of their faith in God, and their reliance on scripture. Their faith provides them with a means of judging reality that is independent of the largely post-religious intellectual commissariat that runs the media and the cultural elite in the Western world. They don't seek or care about receiving the accolades of the NY Times or other post-religious totems for their actions. And Beck's message to Israelis is that we shouldn't care either. ("Glenn Beck's revealing visit," C. Glick, JP Op-ed, 25 Aug. 2011)

Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth.

John 17:17

Chuck & Karen Cohen