Other Articles on Israel

Israel at 60,
60 Years of Miracles

2008 Newsletter

What a 60 years! To start with—the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 was a miracle of history (Ezek.37:1-14; Luke 21:29, 30). Never before has a nation been destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then nearly two thousand years later, regathered to their homeland and reestablished as a nation.

With the approval of the UN, Israel declared itself a nation on May 14, 1948. Another miracle occurred. The armies of seven Arab nations marched on the newborn State. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders, but also acquired more of their ancient Land. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse explanation of Israel’s victory. “It was a miracle!” Why?

Over 2500 years ago the prophet Isaiah made a remarkable prophecy concerning Israel regathered back in her Land. “They that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought…for I will help thee.” (Isaiah 41:12,13).

The Bible Helped Build Israel

The miracles continued. Trees, fruits and vegetables grow over what was once sandy wastes or malaria swamps. New industries fringe historic cities. Highways and pipelines stretch across an energetic nation that had slept for centuries.

David Ben Gurion, Israel’s dynamic first Prime Minister, was an ardent student of the Bible as an accurate history of Israel and its Land. He dispatched engineers, horticulturists, botanists, etc., with the Bible in one hand and research tools in the other. Miracles happened!

Following Bible clues, copper and iron mines were established. One mining engineer, Abraham Dor, observed that at the richest veins of copper —“We come upon the slag and furnaces of ancient Israel. We often get the feeling that someone has just left.” Deuteronomy 8:7-9 was often framed on the walls of mining offices:

Reclaiming the Wasteland

Barren land transformed to the fertility of ancient Israel is a miracle predicted in Scripture (Amos 9:14-15; Ezek. 36:34-35). It was long assumed that most of Palestine was wasteland, irreclaimable for agriculture. But archaeologists discovered the presence of more than 70 ancient settlement sites in one 65-mile stretch of the Jordan Valley alone, each with its own well for water. Lot, over 3,000 years ago, was not exaggerating when he “lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere,… even as the garden of the Lord” (Gen.13:10)

Olive grove in Galilee

New agricultural settlements—from Dan to Beersheba—have risen on ancient sites reidentified by Biblical archaeologists. Concrete pumping stations were set over ancient springs or wells. A well from Abraham’s day, now supplies water for residents on the outskirts of Beersheba.

One of the basic necessities in that arid country was reforestation. Since 1900 Jews have planted over a billion trees. They used the Bible to decide what kind of trees to plant and where to plant them. Debating whether a certain barren hillside would be a suitable location for Israel’s immense “Forest of Martyrs,” Israelis found the answer in Joshua, which revealed that a forest had existed there. “Knowing that trees grow more easily where trees have flourished before,” explained Professor Zohary of the Hebrew University, “we rely on the Good Book.”

“The first tree Abraham planted in Beersheba was a tamarisk,” said Israel’s outstanding authority on reforestation, Dr. Joseph Weitz. “Following his lead, we put out two million in the same area. Abraham was right. The tamarisk is one of the few trees we have found that thrives in the south where yearly rainfall is less than six inches.”

The writer personally knew the Boyko Family who pioneered in following biblical principles of agriculture that enabled the Aravah and the Negev to blossom as a rose. The Bible made Israel the agricultural giant it is today exporting its products worldwide. It took another miracle to make this possible. In Bible times there were two copious rainy seasons in Israel—the “early and the latter rain.” But for the past centuries the “early rain” has been minimal while the “latter rain” and dew have disappeared completely. Since 1878, the “latter rain” is falling again. The precipitation of both has spiraled over the decades just as predicted in Joel 2:23, 24.

The Miracle of Immigration

Jews from the four points of the compass heard the call—come home to Israel (Isa. 43:5,6). While the 1948 war was raging the newcomers poured in. During the first three years of statehood, the average immigration reached 18,000 a month, and in some months the figure exceeded 30,000. Between May 15, 1948, and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of the country doubled. By the end of 1956, Israel’s population had nearly tripled, reaching 1,667,000. Imagine the economic shock of absorption!

Jews kept pouring into Israel over the decades. In 1984-1985 and again in 1991 harrowing airlifts brought Ethiopian Jews from utter despair to a Land of hope. Finally, the long-expected prophetic fulfillment of Jews from Russia began in 1991. By 2000 over a million Jews returned from the former Soviet Republics (CIS) and they are still coming. Israel’s population increased from 650,000 in 1948 to over 7,000,000 in 2008. The miracle of absorption continues.

The Miracle of the ’67 War

Women Cadets, Old City Jerusalem

The Arabs boasted that they would destroy Israel. However, in six days Israel overran the combined forces of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the West Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai—one of the greatest military feats in history. To many Orthodox Jews worldwide, especially in the United States, it was a wake-up call from God. Thousands poured into Israel and settled in Samaria and Judea to stake Israel’s eternal claim to the so-called West Bank—the heartland of Israel.

An ill wind of anti-Semitism is again blowing across Europe. But with a new twist—the hatred of the Jewish State. Why? The Arabs learned the world loves an underdog. How? Guilt ridden after the Holocaust, the world powers finally, but reluctantly, fulfilled their promise of a Jewish State after reneging since the San Remo Conference of 1920. Why the delay? Arab oil was discovered and became the driving force behind Western economies. In order to appease the oil-rich Arabs, the UN reduced the new Israeli State to less than 20% of the size originally promised.

Back Then the Arabs Were the Big Bully

The mechanized armies of seven Arab nations immediately charged the fledgling State’s ragtag army. Composed of many untrained Holocaust survivors, oil or no oil, the world cheered the heroic underdog Israeli army on to victory. Two more legendary victories followed in 1967 and 1973 as Israel acquired and maintained rule over the West Bank and Gaza. Outnumbered, Israel survived in the midst of the sea of 22 Islamic Arab nations.

This was too much! A new strategy of portraying the Arabs within the borders of Israel as the underdog needed to be crafted. Forget that most of them were from surrounding Arab States. Before Arafat, the Arabs in the Holy Land identified themselves as part of the one all-embracing Arab Nation within the 22 Arab States. After all they were all Arabs and had the same religion—Islam.

Arafat propagandized the Arabs in Israel into a dispossessed political Palestinian entity. (Time, Jan. 3, 1994.) It worked. Tens of millions of Arab oil propaganda dollars later, Israel is no longer the underdog but the big bully. World opinion is now clamoring for the legitimate rights to statehood for the Palestinian underdog in the entire so-called West Bank and Gaza. Israel is now vilified as an oppressive colonial power. Palestinian terrorists are called “freedom fighters,” not mass murderers.

Damascus Gate, Jerusalem

What are the facts?

It is incredible that in a 21st century advanced civilization such a diabolical regime as the PLO can be hailed as legitimate freedom fighters. Freedom fighters do not single out civilians, including mothers and children, for terrorism. Unfortunately, Palestinian civilians and children are sometimes killed in IDF operations against terrorism. But the IDF does not purposely target civilians. Compared to the few myopic photographic distortions publicized by the PLO, there are hours of video footage that completely delegitimatize Palestinian freedom fighters. (See Palestinian Media Watch, www.pmw.org.il)

In footage of the late Arafat haranguing the Palestinian masses in Hitler-like oratory, the Palestinians responded in shouts of “Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!” On Palestinian TV children’s hour programs, Palestinian girls and boys under the age of ten are brainwashed to hysterically sing that they want to be suicide bombers when they grow up. In summer recreational children’s camps financed by the European Union, Palestinian children 15 and under are programmed to hate Jews and trained to be terrorists.

Listen to the videotaped words of a young 21-year-old mother of two on her way to a suicide bombing in Gaza (Jan. 1, 2004): “I always wanted to be the first woman who sacrifices her life for Allah. My joy will be complete when my body parts fly in all directions.” Why was she so mentally sick? Not because she had been humiliated and oppressed as a Palestinian, but because she had been a manipulated pawn. The Palestinian leadership that manipulates the blossoming flowers of youth to be suicide bombers and twists the minds of young mothers to abandon their little children to glorify Allah in holy Jihad—such a leadership is mentally sick and morally bankrupt. One shudders to think of an independent Palestinian State under their inevitable tyrannical rule.

Yet, most of the nations, because they are dependent on Arab oil survival, side with the Arabs against the Jewish State. Bristling with anti-Semitism they are determined to pressure Israel to cede a Palestinian State. The United States for dubious reasons of its own is leading the charge of demanding a Palestinian State—albeit a terrorist state. The Lord might permit this to happen to teach Israel a lesson. If they really trusted the Lord who miraculously gave them the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, He would enable them to keep these lands.

Israel at 60 is a nation of miracles, but will the miracles continue?

We saw the miracle of the “early and latter rains” but now because Israel is compromising land, precipitation has decreased to the point Israel is facing a drastic water shortage. Instead of training its army for the inevitable war in Lebanon, Israel devoted months to brainwashing—actually searing the consciences of soldiers while training them in psychological warfare to evict the Gaza settlers and destroy their homes. Consequently, Israel lost the war in Lebanon. Because of the lack of faith Israel might suffer a temporary set back, but…

At least one miracle will continue. Israel at 60 is fast becoming the Silicon Valley of the world. Ezekiel 38:12, 13 predicts that Israel will become the economic envy of the nations. Israel with its “out of the envelop” research teams is pushing back the frontiers of electronics, physics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, etc. And the world is benefiting in many ways. Israel is especially using its technology to assist the underdeveloped nations.

Israel’s economy grew more than 5% in 2007—faster than the U.S., Europe, UK and Japan. While the Bank of Israel expects the country’s fortunes to dip next year, along with the world economy, growth is still expected to excel. During 2008 the Bank of Israel predicts a 3.2% growth and predicts a 3.4% growth rate in 2009. The United States is expected to grow by less than 1%, the EU by 1.2%, Japan by 1%, and the UK by 1.6%.

In a final war with the Arabs, Israel will regain all land given up to the Arabs and additionally conquer the East Bank of Jordan and southern Lebanon (Isaiah 11:14; Zephaniah 2:4-10; Joshua 13:5). Then Israel will enjoy such peace and prosperity that it will invite the greed of the invading forces of Gog. The Lord will defeat this army of multiple nations (Ezekiel 38). The Millennial reign of Christ and his church will be manifested by the Law going forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).