Israel is the key to all end-time prophecy.

Keep your eye on Jerusalem  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Mar 9

Dateline Jerusalem - Jim Fletcher

“They Know Not What They Do”

Abu Mazen, the suit-wearing thug who took over for Yasser Arafat after the terror mastermind went down to the pit with Pharaoh, recently said that it might be necessary for the Palestinians to return to “armed struggle,” if Israel doesn’t buckle sufficiently.

That is pathetic on so many levels.

This Holocaust-denier called Israel’s recent self-defense incursion into Gaza a “Holocaust,” and his sneering threat to “return” to violence (when did they stop?) is chilling. It’s amazing that world leaders actually host this guy.

Many people don’t understand that the Arabs historically have entered into truces or cease-fires with their perceived enemies, only to unleash violence later, when they have sufficient strength. This is referred to as the Treaty of Hudaibiyah, which Muhammad agreed to with rival tribes in Arabia. Arafat referred to it in Arabic and after the Oslo Accords, signaling to his poor subjects that he had no intention of washing the blood off his hands.

George Bush surely knows that the Palestinians are radicalized. Condoleeza Rice made the statement the other day that while Israel certainly has a right to defend herself, the Jewish state must also realize the consequences of civilian casualties when they confront the Hamas murderers.

This is madness on a colossal scale. In my opinion, the standard “Israel has the right to self-defense” is not a genuine sentiment of diplomats. I’m convinced they don’t care about Israel. They only care about appeasing the Arabs.

I doubt Roosevelt spent too many seconds considering civilian casualties in Dresden. The Bible tells us that God takes no pleasure in the deaths of humans. As humans, obviously, we shouldn’t, either. Yet we live in a fallen world, and are somewhat at the mercy of violent men.

In general, the Arabs respect strength and have contempt for what they perceive to be weakness. Weakness in our case is Condi Rice jetting to the David Citadel Hotel and meeting with alleged peacemakers. Why do our diplomats set foot in a terror nest like Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem, when the location is notorious for plotting not only violence against Israel, but America, as well? That Mazen is considered a legitimate negotiating partner is almost incomprehensible.

When you walk around east Jerusalem today as a tourist, it is a lively place: Middle Eastern culture is on full display. Merchants work for sales. Smells — good (food) and bad (garbage) — mingle with great familiarity. The empty tomb of our Lord is close by. So is the Mount of Olives.

Yet this same area has been the scene of violent demonstrations in the past two weeks, as Palestinians protest the Israeli offensive against the terror the Palestinians themselves have unleashed.

Unreal. Truly, Ishmael is alive and well.

It is a strange sensation to wander the streets of Jerusalem or Bethlehem and buy trinkets from men you strongly suspect of being members of Fatah or Hamas. Frankly, I buy to enhance my chances of getting home. To contribute tourist dollars to a radicalized people is a feeling so bizarre, I scarcely know how to properly describe it.

But there is something in the Jewish psyche that prevents them from finishing-off their enemies. Many times over the years, the Israelis have had to enter Gaza to clean out the terror nests. When Ariel Sharon launched a major assault in 1971, many no doubt thought/hoped this would be the last time.

Thirty-five years later, history repeats itself, with more loss of life to the Israelis and the Palestinians. Daily, rockets rain down on Israel towns and cities. Madness!

All the while, Israel provides electricity to Gaza! Benjamin Netanyahu has it right: turn off the lights. Are you aware of any other people who fight their enemies while also providing humanitarian aid to them?

An Israeli officer told me once that Israel could have killed Arafat on 15 separate occasions, but chose each time to back off. “At least we knew the evil we were dealing with; perhaps someone worse would have come after him,” he said.

Hard to imagine anyone worse than Arafat. Like Hitler, the weird little man in the checkered keffiyeh often hugged children and accepted flowers from them, all while he was making sure they’d end up dead as suicide bombers or rock throwers.

It is difficult to exactly fit these events into the end-times prophecies. Currently, of course, Israel has a security fence that has drastically cut the number of terror bombings. Yet we know from Scripture that it is only when Israel is feeling secure — in a land of unwalled villages — that the real evil begins. So where all the latest, lamest peace process has us is anyone’s guess.

The lack of leadership in Israel and in Western diplomacy is astonishing. We are enabling the Palestinians. They have only one strategy, and it is working: squeeze Israel into nothingness.

In Hosea 13:9, God declares, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Israel currently is destroying herself with the diabolical peace process imposed on her by ostensible friends. But God has made it clear that He will save her, and I sit back and enjoy the wait.

All this chaos and violence only pulls back the curtain on the final act. The consummation of history will reveal a sovereign God who intervenes to save the Jews, in their ancient homeland. He promised in Scripture that they would return to the Holy Land in the latter days. Interestingly, they did not finally settle in Africa or anywhere else; Uganda had actually been proposed as a homeland for the Jews.

But they came back to Zion because their Creator said they would. In this way, He is not only revealing Himself to them, but to us gentiles, as well.

It is today as Isaiah said it would be: good is called evil and evil is called good. You experience this in your own life, in your relationships. On the job. At church. And Israelis experience it on an epic scale in the land of their forefathers.

Abu Mazen, in his obsession with personal power and survival (and not a little old-fashioned mendacity), thinks he is on the right track. How deliciously ironic that this aging terrorist is simply fulfilling prophecy declared by a God he doesn’t acknowledge.

He will soon