May 1994
The
United Nations Security Council Resolution 280 of March 18, 1994
condemned the Hebron massacre and declared Jerusalem
"occupied territory." For the United Nations to say
Jerusalem is "occupied territory" presupposes Jerusalem
rightfully belongs to the Palestinian Arabs. This was most
unfortunate.
Facts
of History
Archeological digs establish a 3000-year-old
history of a Jewish Jerusalem. Over one thousand years later, in
CE 70, Jerusalem fell to Rome. Notwithstanding the determined
effort thereafter by Gentiles—especially Christians and Moslems—to
ban Jews from Jerusalem, the first recorded census of Jerusalem
taken in 1844 revealed the Jews as being the majority population.
Jews have continued to be the majority.
Jordan
Made Jerusalem
“Occupied Territory”
When Israel became an independent state in
1948, armies from seven Arab nations invaded the new-born State.
Outnumbered 100 to one, Israel's rag-tag army pushed back the
invaders. Divine Providence was telling the world something about
whose Land it is. The only exception to Israel's rightful victory
was East Jerusalem.
The Arab
State of Transjordan captured East Jerusalem, expelled all Jews
and destroyed or desecrated all Jewish holy sites. That is when
Jerusalem became "occupied territory." Also defying the
UN mandate, Transjordan occupied the west bank of the river
Jordan. No longer limited to being "Trans" (across)
Jordan (the East Bank), Transjordan reduced its name to simply
Jordan, now ruling over both the occupied West Bank and the
original East Bank of Jordan.
In the
1967 Six-Day War, under the threat of being "pushed into the
sea" by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, Israel actually liberated
the "occupied territory" of Jerusalem and granted free
access to Jews, Christians and Moslems to worship at their holy
sites. Israel also liberated the West Bank and Gaza. How easily
recent history is forgotten and/or distorted. Read the history of
how the Palestinians were treated by their Arab brothers—the
Jordanians and the Egyptians. Under the Israeli government they
now live in comparative luxury.
The UN
has had the audacity to call Jerusalem and the "West
Bank" "occupied territories" only when Israel
regained them in the 1967 War. In 1922 the League of Nations
recognized the legal, moral and historic right of the Jewish
people to a national homeland in Palestine—including Jerusalem.
If the Jews had a right to Jerusalem in 1922, that right is valid
today. But, since then, vast oil reserves were discovered in Arab
lands. The nations are compromising Israel's rights for their own
oil interests. Consequently, the U.S. administration and the UN
define East Jerusalem as "occupied territory." No part
of Jerusalem is "occupied territory."
Jerusalem—indivisible—belongs
to Israel. The same logic applies to the West Bank. Unfortunately,
Israel's government is too intimidated by tremendous pressure from
the U.S. and other world powers to insist on its historic right to
Judea—Samaria, the so-called "West Bank."
Divine
Providence
Since its statehood, the hand of Divine
Providence has more than once worked on behalf of Israel the
miracle of the Six-Day War the SCUD missiles of the Gulf War. The
nations had better understand, "For he that touched you
[Israel] toucheth the apple of his [God's] eye" (Zechariah
2:8). The nations had better heed the Biblical warning of Divine
Providence: "In that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome
stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be
cut to pieces" (Zechariah 12:3).
The
First Hebron Massacre
Jews lived almost uninterruptedly in Hebron
for over 3000 years until 1929, when Arabs (who were not called
"Palestinians" until the late 1960s) massacred 69 Jewish
people in Hebron and forced the British to terminate all Jewish
presence in Hebron.
The
Worth of Jewish Life
Hitler found that Gentiles considered Jewish
life cheap. He put a price on their heads for safe passage to
other nations. To his surprise no one was willing to pay the
price. They ended up in "The Final Solution"—the
extermination of all Jews. Amazingly, Jewish life seems to remain
an expendable commodity today. Several years ago Palestinians
massacred 22 worshipers in the largest synagogue in Istanbul.
There were bloody attacks in synagogues in Copenhagen, Antwerp,
Paris and Rome. Islamic and Palestinian groups rushed forward
proudly to claim the "honor" for these attacks. There
were other attacks, such as, the Israeli athletes murdered by
Palestinians at the Munich Olympics.
Since the
signing of the Washington Peace Accords, over 30 Israelis have
been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. On February 18 Tsippora
Sasson, who was five months pregnant, was killed by Palestinians
while riding in a car with her husband and two children, ages 6
and 9. She was shot in the head and abdomen. This happened seven
days before the Hebron massacre. THE NEW YORK TIMES ("all the
news that's fit to print") gave her murder a mere three
sentences while dealing with the Hebron massacre almost on a daily
basis.
All these
murders of Israelis were not acts of a single distressed person
but were planned by groups which the majority (or near majority)
of Palestinians support. These terrorists' acts were not renounced
by the Palestinian people or their leaders. Remember how the
Palestinians cheered as Iraqi SCUD missiles flew overhead on their
murderous mission to Israel? The Hebron massacre was the act of
one person. All the rest of Israel—including government leaders
and settlers—renounced and denounced this horrible act.
Where are
the outcries of world opinion or UN resolutions condemning the
repeated atrocities by Palestinians? Why is the world so
insensitive to the shedding of Jewish blood by many Arabs? Yet,
when one sick Israeli committed an atrocity, the PLO—backed by
an oil-rich Arab block—pressured the UN Security Council to pass
a resolution condemning Israel.
Where
violence is concerned, neither Israel nor any other nation is
above scrutiny; but the persistency of outcry against Israel is
suspect. Where Israel has erred, it will receive Divine
retribution. The killing of innocent Israelis or Arabs is most
tragic. We grieve for both the Israelis and Arabs who have had
their loved ones torn from them.
The
Historical Perspective
At the breaking up of the Turkish Empire by
the Allies at the end of W.W.I, both Arabs and Jews requested
independent states. The world powers were generous in the extreme
to the Arabs by granting them 21 independent Arab states, covering
5,414,000 square miles. The Jews asked for only 0.9 percent of
that vast territory. In 1917 and 1921 the Allied Powers agreed to
this request. As a consequence of "oil diplomacy" Israel
now possesses a mere 0.2 percent of it.
Divine
Providence
There is a higher dimension in this issue—Divine
Providence. The new Israeli State is a miracle of history
prophesied in the Bible. Its boundaries, which include the Golan
Heights and the West Bank, were foretold (Genesis 15:18-21;
Jeremiah 16:13-15; Zechariah 10:9-10; Micah 7:14). Its reclamation
of wastelands (Amos 9:14), climatic changes (Zechariah 8:11-12;
Joel 2:21-23), and capture of Old Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:5-6)
were prophesied long ago. Eventually the Arabs will recognize
Israel's rights. Then Israel and her Arab neighbors shall be
"a blessing in the midst of the earth" (Isaiah 19:24) in
God's Kingdom "when the law shall go forth from Zion and the
word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Isaiah 2:3.
"In
those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out
of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt
of him that is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you: for we have
heard that God is with you.'" Zechariah 8:23
Read the online booklet:
"Israeli-Arab
Peace Process and Bible Prophecy."
