We think that the answer is a resounding YES. On a political level, the Jews have had a claim on the land of Israel since Abraham first settled in it – thousands of years before the inception of Islam or before the word 'Palestine' was used to describe the area. Jews have lived in the land ever since (despite repeated attempts to drive them out).

After the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the land did not (and has never) become an independent Palestinian Arab state, but actually became a neglected, provincial, ethnically diverse backwater, ruled by a succession of different empires. By 1844, long before the birth of the official Zionist movement in 1897, Jews were already the single largest ethnic group in Jerusalem, and by 1880, they formed a majority of the population there.

In 1947, after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed to the world, there was international agreement that Jews worldwide should be allowed to return to their homeland, instituted through a UN Declaration. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs put it this way:

On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.¹

However, important though this historic trail is and vital though this global agreement was, the Jewish right to the Land is actually not rooted in questions about heritage or who has been there the longest. It goes back to an everlasting, incontrovertible right given by God through his Covenant made with Abraham (Gen 15). The Covenant promise was passed on to Isaac (Gen 22) and Jacob (Gen 28), and through Jacob to the Twelve Tribes, as is borne out through the prophetic history of the Old Testament .

Nevertheless, occupation of the Land is subject to God's covenant conditions (Deut 27-29). All the prophets pointed to the day of the final Return (for example, Isaiah 61 and 62). The question is then not so much what the political situation of the world is, but what God is doing to restore his people to their homeland in fulfilment of biblical prophecy. The question is not whether Israel has a right to the Land, but whether now is the time when the God of Israel is bringing his people back to it.

References

1 Declaration of Establishment of the State of Israel, 14 May 1948. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Much of what we hear about Israel revolves around the accusation – wholly without foundation – that they have stolen the land they 'occupy' from the Palestinians. This narrative was much used by PLO founder Yasser Arafat in order to gain popular support for his cause, which was to de-legitimize Israel's claim to the land.

Just as Israel was on the verge of re-joining the world's nations in 1948 after 2,000 years of Jewish dispersion across the globe, the surrounding states warned Arab residents to flee as they were about to launch an attack designed to abort this re-birth (see Rev 12:12). Thousands fled as a result and remain, with their descendants, refugees in neighbouring countries who have consistently refused to absorb them, arguing that their rightful home is in 'Palestine'.

But there is no such people group as Palestinians. Those so described are a mixture of Arab people from the Middle East. Yes, the region was known as Palestine before 1948, but even local Jews were called Palestinians in those days. 'Palestina' (a derivation of Philistine, Israel's ancient enemy) was so named by the Romans in 136 AD as a final insult to the people whose land they ravaged. The idea of a Palestinian people is a political invention designed to drive Israel out of the area. Israel has both a biblical and historical claim to the land going back at least 3,500 years (see Q1: Does the Jewish nation have a right to be back in the Land of Israel?).

Most Palestinians follow Islam, only founded in 620 AD and based on the Qur'an, which makes no claim to the land (though Jews are under divine instruction to love the alien among them - Deut 10:19). True, the Islamic Ottoman Empire held sway over the area for 400 years until it was legitimately liberated by Britain's General Allenby in 1917 as part of the Allied push in World War I. This coincided with the British Government's so-called Balfour Declaration, promising to do all in its power to provide a national home for the Jewish people.

As part of the spoils of victory in the Great War, Britain was given the mandate over Palestine, allowing them to implement this promise. Tragically they reneged on their agreement in various ways, yet their earlier efforts had set an unstoppable process in motion – the restoration of Israel in fulfillment of many biblical prophecies. "I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land" (Ezek 36:24) is just one such example.

In 1947 the United Nations voted to recognize the new state of Israel (Britain, to its shame, abstained). Yet, despite the vote, the surrounding Arab states almost immediately declared war on Israel. The new-born nation survived, as it did with subsequent conflicts in 1967, 1973 and to this day. The so-called West Bank (Judea and Samaria) was illegally annexed by Jordan in 1948 but recovered in the Six-Day War by Israel, who do not 'occupy' any land illegally!

There is a certain mind-set, known as 'Dual Covenant Theology', which holds that there are two paths to salvation: one through law and the other through grace. It is thought that this idea may have started with Maimonides, a prominent medieval Jewish philosopher. Even if we do not fully subscribe to it, from time to time it may be tempting to think that God has a different path of salvation for the Jews. But this theology separates too heavily the Old Testament from the New.

The view, which teaches that both Judaism and Christianity are valid paths to God deserving of equal respect, argues that God began a new work with Jesus aimed at bringing about a Christian Church in the Gentile world, while dealing with Israel in a different way. This is seemingly supported by the rise to prominence of the Church in the Gentile world over nearly 2,000 years, whilst the Jews have sometimes seemed abandoned by God.

Once this mind-set is formed it can be further concluded that the Jews will be saved through their literal observance of the Torah - a different path from Christians. If we dip into Scripture here and there, instead of reading it as a comprehensive whole, there are plenty of apparent proof-texts which support the view that Christians are saved through grace and the Jews are saved through law. Proponents of this view can even seem sympathetic to God's covenant promises to Israel by proposing that these two paths of salvation will eventually converge.

It is true that one day Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua HaMashiach) will return for all his people, both Jews and Gentiles – his Bride made ready. It is also true, however, that Jesus (Yeshua) has already come to earth to be a sacrifice for sin and has declared himself to be the only way to the Father (John 3:18, John 14:6).

First for the Jew, Then for the Gentile

The history of Israel in the Old Testament contains the history of God's covenant purposes – and shows that God never intended salvation to be obtained through human effort. The promise made to Abraham (Gen 17) has never been fulfilled through human effort in keeping the laws of Moses - holy and righteous though those laws remain. Paul the Apostle expounds this powerfully in the letter to the Romans. He says clearly that all have sinned (everyone – Jew and Gentile) and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). This is why God made another covenant that was first for Israel and Judah and which could also be extended to include Gentiles who come to God through faith in Jesus (Yeshua). This covenant is recorded in Jeremiah 31.

In fulfilment of the covenant made through Jeremiah, Jesus (Yeshua) came to invite "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 10:6) to himself (the very name Yeshua means 'salvation'). It was only later, when Jesus ascended to the Father, that the apostles were given the authority to preach the good news to all nations, inviting all to come to faith and join those saved through faith from the nation of Israel. Romans 11 depicts the one united body of believers using the metaphor of the olive tree, and Ephesians 2 explores the principle of the 'one new man'.

Faith and Life by the Spirit

It is true that studying the laws of God and seeking to live by them can prepare a person (whether Jew or Gentile) for the Gospel, but without faith and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit (see John 3) no-one can be saved for eternal life and efforts to keep God's law will always fall short.

Timing of the harvests from all nations (including the final great harvest from Israel prophesied in Scripture) is in the Father's hands, but there is only one way to salvation for both Israel and those from any other nation. Each individual comes to the Father by faith in Jesus (Yeshua). Ideas about alternative paths to salvation can inhibit people from seeking to trust in Yeshua here and now.

The British Government's Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, promising to do all in its power to create a Jewish national home, was the culmination of a century of persistent lobbying by Jewish Zionists and evangelical preachers. The perfect opportunity to fulfil the pledge came within weeks when British forces, led by General Sir Edmund Allenby, ended 400 years of Turkish control of the region under the Ottoman Empire.

The League of Nations was subsequently set up to redraw the map (and resolve further disputes) following the peace treaty at Versailles in 1919. This resulted in Britain being given administrative control over what was then still known as Palestine, on the understanding that it was to form the basis of a Jewish national home when the people were ready for self-government. This 'British Mandate for Palestine' was ratified the following year at San Remo on the Italian Riviera, where the Balfour Declaration was recognised and incorporated into international law.

Map showing the British Mandate territory, and the area annexed for Transjordan in 1921. See Photo Credits.Britain's Compromises

Given the awesome responsibility of guarding the ancient land God promised to Abraham until the occupants were ready for independence, Britain instead got sidetracked and intimidated by Arab opposition, and effectively reneged on their promise in a bid to appease them. With a stroke of the pen, Winston Churchill (then Colonial Secretary) created a 'two-state solution' by giving so-called Transjordan (east of the Jordan River) to the Arabs, thus reducing the territory earmarked for the Jews by a whopping 75% (Churchill was, however, generally supportive of Jewish aspirations).

Jews were then targeted in a series of bloody riots through the 1920s and 30s, and Britain responded by severely limiting Jewish immigration to the area. With Hitler on the rise from 1930 onwards (with his anti-Semitic sentiments no secret), many German, Polish and Czechoslovakian Jews sought refuge in Israel, but were refused entry. It is believed many thousands could have escaped the Nazi death camps but for Britain's treachery.

Israel's Baptism of Fire

Britain was given the inestimable privilege of acting as midwife in the re-birth of Israel, but most of her military chiefs were unsympathetic. And while their European brothers were being sent to the gas chambers, Jewish soldiers fought alongside the Allies. At one point, some 1/2 million Palestinian Jews came under threat as Germany closed in on them. But Israel was thankfully spared and, out of the ashes of the Holocaust, a new nation emerged (Ezek 37:21-22).

Though it was a baptism of fire for Israel, the timing was perfect as - for once - the plight of the Jews evoked sympathy from many nations, who duly voted (at the newly-formed United Nations) to recognise the new state of Israel on 29 November 1947. Britain, to its shame, abstained – and gave up responsibility for a Mandate which had become so difficult to administer.

Few believed Israel stood much of a chance of survival when the nation was born on 14 May 1948, especially when the surrounding Arab states immediately declared war on her. But they reckoned without God, who watches over Israel with an everlasting love (Isa 62:6, Jer 31:3).

The tragedy, as far as we in the UK are concerned, is that Britain at the time was more concerned with expanding her Empire than with supporting God's chosen people – and paid a heavy price by losing it! (Isa 60:12)

'Apartheid' Claims are Anti-Semitic

As a South African who grew up in the apartheid era, and who signed up as a youth delegate for the anti-apartheid Progressive Party while a student, I find the present politically-correct campaign to condemn Israel as an apartheid state particularly obnoxious, not to say ridiculous.

The issue has been highlighted by the resignation of Oxford University Labour Club co-chairman Alex Chalmers, in the wake of the club's vote to endorse this week's global Israeli Apartheid Week seeking to bolster the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against all things Israeli. Chalmers has cited strongly anti-Semitic tendencies among members including support for Hamas (the terrorist group controlling the Palestinian enclave of Gaza).

You would think that Oxford students would strive to allow free debate and fair consideration of both sides, seeing as they are perceived as the intellectual elite. But the Bible reminds us that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..." (Prov 1:7), not man's academic pursuits.

What About the Wall?

True, a security wall has been built in Israel, to keep potential suicide bombers from launching their murderous raids from the disputed territories. Even outspoken Palestinian Christy Anastas says this was necessary "because it has stopped my people from blowing themselves up".¹ And it has worked!

But this can hardly be compared with the separate development policy of Afrikaner-led South Africa, which restricted black citizens to certain areas and denied them political and other rights, including access to 'whites-only' jobs. The minority Arab citizens in Israel have the same rights as their fellow Jewish citizens, which was never the case for blacks in my country between 1948 and the early 1990s.

In Israel, Arabs are even represented in the Knesset (Parliament) and I have personally met a Muslim Arab Israeli diplomat. In South Africa, blacks had no vote, their pay was much lower than that of white people doing the same job, and access to education was limited. How can an apartheid state have Jews and Arabs working together in government and side by side in hospitals?

Who's Practising Apartheid?

There are 1.6 million Arabs living in Israel – that's 20% of the population. And yet PA leader Mahmoud Abbas will not allow any Jews to live in his proposed state of 'Palestine'. So who's practising apartheid? Worse still, the new Hamas textbooks in Gaza teach that "all of Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan belongs to us – to us Muslims."² So, no room for Jews anywhere in the region then!

The deeper one becomes embroiled in this debate, which is fuelled by gross ignorance, prejudice and skewed intelligence and which ultimately drives towards the de-legitimisation of Israel, the stronger the stench of anti-Semitism becomes.

What an irony, too, that the present South African government chooses to condemn Israel as an apartheid state, when it was the Jewish community among the ruling white population who were at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement there.

Robert Hardman, in a major Daily Mail article on the Oxford debacle,³ points out that "Israel is one of the only places in the Middle East where these oh-so-righteous custodians of the moral high ground could live without discrimination or worse..."

Both Robert and Charles (that's me) rest their case.

References

1 Bethlehem Native Christy Anastas Voices Strong Support for Israel's Security Barrier. The Algemeiner, 4 May 2014.

2 Peace in Jerusalem by Charles Gardner, available from olivepresspublisher.com – also a source for other material used in this article

3 Hardman, R, Anti-Semitism and Oxford's Left wing hate mob: University's Labour club chair quits, saying the Left has a 'problem with Jews.' Is it so surprising when Jeremy Corbyn backs terrorists who bomb Israel? The Daily Mail, 20 February 2016.

As British cities took part in 2016 'Israeli Apartheid Week', which rallies people to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and which has been gathering momentum year on year, hundreds of London Underground trains were plastered with ads depicting Israel as a vile apartheid state. They turned out to be illegal fly-posters and were duly removed - but not without the intervention of authorities alerted by the Israeli Embassy.¹

Because the issues surrounding Israel are highly complicated and controversial, some are frightened off taking any view at all, while others fall for the temptation of over-simplifying things, which is why those determined to vilify Israel latch on to the emotive 'A' word.

Israel Not Perfect

Of course Israel is far from perfect, and there are areas of discrimination - like restrictions on land access for Palestinian citizens. But as Benjamin Pogrund wrote in The Guardian last year, the situation in Israel cannot and should not be compared to apartheid South Africa – and he should know, since he was a correspondent there for 26 years, and has been living in Israel for 17 years.

"The Arabs of Israel are full citizens", he wrote. "Crucially, they have the vote and Israeli Arab MPs sit in parliament. An Arab judge sits on the country's highest court; an Arab is chief surgeon at a leading hospital; an Arab commands a brigade of the Israeli army...Under apartheid, every detail of life was subject to discrimination by law...Israel is not remotely like that."²

Elsewhere, South African Olga Meshoe, daughter of African Christian Democratic Party president Rev Kenneth Meshoe, has called designations of Israel as an 'apartheid' state "an absolute lie" which "trivialises" what happened in South Africa.³ She is now campaigning worldwide for Israel to be treated more fairly and intelligently.

Discrimination – or Self-Preservation?

Much of what is perceived as discrimination in Israel is driven by the need for security. For example, the disputed West Bank (still known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria and claimed as their biblical heartland) is not part of modern-day Israel; so when people cross over into Israel, they are effectively crossing an international border, where you would normally expect checkpoints.

But in the case of Israel, such controls are doubly necessary due to the constant threat of terrorism. I was stopped at a checkpoint myself while travelling with friends up the Jordan Valley to Galilee. And when armed Israeli soldiers asked for my passport, I was unable to oblige, having left it behind at a Jerusalem guesthouse. But after some anxious moments, my driving licence was deemed sufficient and we were waived through.

The security fence was erected after nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians were killed by suicide bombers in the five-year period to 2005. And it has worked. Even Palestinian terrorists have admitted it is a deterrent.⁴

Arab Palestinians visit Israel for work every day from the PA-controlled West Bank and are searched, as you would naturally expect on passing through customs. However, there are some Palestinian areas from which Jews are altogether banned!

Distorted Narrative

While acknowledging that Israel isn't perfect, Pogrund concludes that her critics "exaggerate and distort and present an ugly caricature far distant from reality". Many want more than an end to the occupation; they want an end to Israel itself, he says, asking: "Why is Israel the only country in the world whose very right to existence is challenged in this way?"⁵

It's worth pointing out that apartheid in South Africa finally collapsed when the structure upon which it was built – a false understanding of the scriptures – fell apart. This happened when leading Afrikaner clerics confessed that they had been wrong.⁶ In fact, the Church as a whole played a leading role in ensuring a relatively peaceful transition from white minority to black majority rule. In matters of politics in other parts of the world, we still need the Church to lead with this kind of repentance and wisdom, which can only come from God.

I'll let America's legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King have the last word. In a letter to a friend who claimed to be 'merely anti-Zionist', not a Jew-hater, he thundered:

Let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews...Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind...And what is anti-Zionism? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa...⁷

Notes

1 Anti-Israel Ads Plaster London's Underground. Bridges for Peace, 26 February 2016.

2 Pogrund, B. Israel has many injustices. But it is not an apartheid state. The Guardian, 22 May 2015.

3 BDS claims make mockery of SA struggle, says Olga Meshoe. Gateway News, 3 March 2016.

4 David Soakell, Watching Over Zion newsletter. Christian Friends of Israel, 18 February 2016.

5 See note 2.

6 A key influence in this was evangelist Michael Cassidy, whose biography you can read here.

7 This I believe: selections from the writings of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, New York, 1971, pp234-235. Thanks also to Saltshakers, the website of author Steve Maltz.

'A greater miracle than the Red Sea crossing'

There are few things clearer in Scripture than the promise of Israel's future restoration. In fact, more than half the prophetic scriptures relate to the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.¹ John Wesley, perhaps the most revered man of God in English history, wrote: "So many prophecies refer to this grand event that it is surprising any Christian can doubt of it."²

The prophet Jeremiah said it would be a greater miracle than the crossing of the Red Sea, when some two million Israelites fled Egypt on dry land before the waters closed in on the chasing army:

'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when people will no longer say, "As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt," but they will say, "As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them." Then they will live in their own land.' (Jer 23:7f)

Quoting the Lord again later, Jeremiah writes: "See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth" (Jer 31:8). This promise is repeated often (indicating its great importance) by other prophets of old, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah and Zechariah.

And the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Roman Christians written with the specific emphasis that God had not turned his back on the Jews because of their apparent rejection of Christ, adds that when the full number of Gentiles has come in, "all Israel will be saved" (Rom 11:25f).

It needs to be understood that there are both physical and spiritual applications to many important areas of the Bible's teaching. For example, Jesus says that physical birth must be followed by spiritual birth if one is to 'see' or understand the kingdom of God (John 3:3-6). It's the same with Israel's restoration – first to the land, and then to the Lord. Notice that the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:8, quoted above, is followed shortly afterwards by God's promise of a new covenant with the house of Israel when he would write his law on their hearts, and they would all "know the Lord" (vv31-34).

Ezekiel follows the same pattern, first stating that God will bring his people back to their own land (Ezek 36:24) and then, just two verses later, adding that he will give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them!

And so, in these latter days, we have witnessed the miracle of Jews returning to their ancient homeland from every corner of the globe, in perfect fulfilment of the scriptures mentioned above. There are now over six million Jews – nearly half of world Jewry – living in Israel, with ever-increasing numbers of new arrivals, many of whom are fleeing anti-Semitism.

At the same time, we are witnessing the unprecedented worldwide growth of so-called Messianic fellowships (Jews who believe Jesus is their Messiah), along with a rapidly growing openness (even among ultra-Orthodox groups) to the prospect that Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew) may, after all, be their Messiah. God has a great future for Israel!

Notes

1 Fisher, J, 2016. What is God doing in Israel? Monarch Books, pp87-91.

2 John Wesley's notes on Romans, quoted in A Nation Called by God, published by Love Never Fails.

Must Deuteronomy 30:1-5 be fulfilled to validate the 1948 restoration of Israel?

God made known through Moses the behaviour that would lead to Israel being taken into captivity (as inevitably happened), and he also made known what the conditions for their return were to be. There was to be repentance, return to God and restoration of all the conditions of the Covenant made at Sinai. The order was important: first the nation must return to God (Deut 30:2), then they would be brought back from captivity (Deut 30:3).

An astute reader of this Q&A series has pointed out that if these are the key scriptures relating to Israel's restoration today, it is clear that their conditions have not yet been fulfilled. The modern nation of Israel is not living fully according to the Covenant with Moses, nor was there a wholesale return to God before the 1948 return to the land. This leads to the thought that the nation as it stands today is more a device of man, or a political contrivance, than an act of God. The implications of this view are immense!

Yet, we would respectfully argue that this is not the way to look at it.

The return of Israel from being scattered among the nations for nearly 2,000 years seems far too significant an event in regard to God's chosen people and in regard to the end times, for God to let this matter be so unclear. God has to "be in" this wonderful event in a way that we must look carefully to understand. But how do we reconcile this with the Bible?

Foreseeing the New Covenant

The Covenant with Moses was a complete package – all its terms were to be obeyed by Israel, or the consequence of captivity among the nations would eventually come about. However, fulfilment of this Covenant was proved an impossibility because of human weakness, so the mercy of God triumphed over judgment to bring into being a New Covenant.

This New Covenant was made known to Jeremiah at the time of the Babylonian captivity (Jer 31:31-37). Whilst Jeremiah prophesied in Judah, Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon - and Ezekiel too had a revelation of the New Covenant (see Ezek 36:24-28). So God made his plans known ahead of time in both Judah and Babylon.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel foresaw this prior to Israel's return from Babylon after 70 years. God was looking ahead, beyond this first return, which was still subject to the terms of the Old Covenant made through Moses. But God was looking ahead to the last days when Israel would be restored – a different restoration than Moses had foreseen. He foresaw a later scattering and a need for greater help in terms of the New Covenant.

The Coming of the New Covenant

The context of this later scattering and return was the coming of Jesus the Messiah. His sacrifice on the Cross opened the way for the New Covenant to be fulfilled; now the only way to return to God for anyone - Jew or Gentile - is to return through Jesus (John 14:6) (NB this does not mean that the principles found in Deuteronomy are completely obsolete and irrelevant - but this is a topic for another time).

Thus we must look at the present-day restoration of Israel in terms of God's plan to bring his people to restored fellowship with him in New Covenant terms. The relevant Scripture to confirm the return to the land of Israel prior to the outpouring of God's Spirit is Ezekiel 36:22-25:

...for my holy name's sake...I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean...

First the nation is gathered, and then brought to renewed fellowship with God through the New Covenant.

Let us not look so closely at the political circumstances that we fail to realise that this return from the nations and the restoration of Israel is indeed a major sign of the end times, when eventually all the remaining promises of God will be fulfilled – in whatever way he chooses. Watch and see what the Lord will do!

The plain reason for the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli War was the fact that Arabs did not want a Jewish state in their neighbourhood.

But its origins can be traced back some 4,000 years to the enmity between Isaac and Ishmael, both children of Abraham, the father of the Jewish race. Isaac was the 'son of promise' – that is, he was promised by God even though Abraham and his wife Sarah were well past the normal age of fertility – while Ishmael was born to Hagar, the couple's Egyptian servant, as a result of Abraham and Sarah manipulating the situation rather than believing the word of God. It is with Ishmael that the Muslim world has long associated itself.

This explains, both on a physical and a spiritual level, why the two are still bitter rivals. But it isn't God's will – he longs for the reconciliation that can only be achieved through common recognition of the shed blood of Abraham's descendant, the Messiah Jesus, for our sins.

The Road to Statehood

The 1948 war broke out the day after Israel became a nation once again, after nearly 2,000 years of dispersion. Jews had been returning to the Holy Land in droves since the 1880s, partly due to rising persecution in the countries of their adoption but also through encouragement by evangelical Christians and Jewish Zionists. The prophetic scriptures spoke repeatedly of restoration to the land, and to the Lord, and many had been praying and working towards this end.

Britain had been given the awesome responsibility, through a post-First World War League of Nations Mandate, to fulfil its own promise of preparing a national homeland for the persecuted Jews. But as soon as it became clear that a Jewish state was in the offing, Arab opposition mounted. Mobs rioted and Jews were mercilessly attacked, as is still happening today.

Britain duly ceded a whopping 75% of the territory originally earmarked for Israel to the Arabs (now known as Jordan) and later restricted Jewish immigration at a time when millions were in danger of being slaughtered by the Nazis. It was no secret that Jerusalem's Mufti (Muslim religious leader), Haj Amin al-Husseini, colluded with Hitler in plans to exterminate the Jews. And by World War II, Arab oil had also become an issue.

Just as the German Fuehrer had no doubt taken courage from Neville Chamberlain's attempt to appease Nazi ambitions, the Arabs will have been bolstered by their ability to get a major world power (Britain) to buckle under their pressure.

'Dragon' attacks new-born nation!

And so, in flagrant defiance of a United Nations vote recognising the state of Israel (despite Britain's abstention), six Arab states immediately attacked the new-born nation – an action graphically portrayed in Revelation 12.4f which depicts a dragon (satan) about to swoop on a new-born child (also fulfilled with Herod's killing of the innocents in a bid to murder the new King of Israel born in Bethlehem).

Miraculously, Israel survived the onslaught and went on to rebuild the ancient ruins of a land that had been left desolate for millennia, though Jordan illegally annexed Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem's Old City. These, however, were re-captured in the Six-Day War of 1967, though they remain disputed territories (known as the West Bank) on the international political scene.

It's important to note that Israel was not attacked because they were seen as occupying 'Palestinian land' or brutally treating 'Palestinians', for there were no such people. If anyone was known as Palestinian in the early life of modern Israel, it was the Jews who lived there. The motivation for attack was plainly – and still is – a denial of the Jewish state's right to exist.

In the late 19th Century, the Holy Land was described by travellers including author Mark Twain as a "barren wasteland". But when Jews began resettling in increasing numbers, Arabs from neighbouring countries flocked in as economic migrants, benefiting from jobs produced by expanding agricultural and other enterprises.

Politicians today keep talking of a 'two-state solution', but in reality this was achieved way back in 1922 when Churchill created Transjordan (now known as Jordan, east of the Jordan River) for the Arabs in a bid to offset their vociferous opposition to British proposals for a new Israel. A further attempt at appeasement was later made by offering territory west of the Jordan, including Judea and Samaria, but this was rejected by the Arabs out of hand. So it was no solution then - and it's hard to understand how it can still be seen as the way to peace now.

The overriding Covenant with Israel, now extended to all who come by faith from the entire world, is the Covenant made with Abraham (Gen 15) that God would gather a family from all nations to be his own people. This Covenant is unconditional but it is not what we mean by the 'Old Covenant'.

The 'Old Covenant', as it is known, is the Covenant made through Moses at Sinai. The foundation was set in the Ten Commandments and then the nation of Israel learned how to interpret these into every aspect of life on the pilgrimage from Egypt to the Promised Land.

Community life with God at the centre was fulfilled through Feasts, Sabbaths and the daily priestly ministry of the Tabernacle, including the sacrifices. The community was ordered through the many principles of how to live together now broadly called the Laws of Moses.

Today, the 'Old Covenant' is often referred to as obsolete, irrelevant and superseded by the 'New Covenant' – but is this right? Furthermore, does the Old Covenant still apply to practising Jews today?

The Laws of Moses

The 'Old Covenant', this set of principles for walking with God (halakhah), cannot be bettered - even though it was discovered that it cannot remove the sinfulness imprinted on the character of all mankind, which continues to beset every individual.

Jesus the Messiah confirmed the ongoing importance of the Laws of Moses in his Sermon on the Mount, showing that his ministry was in some sense linked to the Old Covenant – "for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt 5:18). Jesus also showed that the entire Law hung on just two principles, which lay behind the Ten Commandments and all else that came through Moses:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets. (Matt 22:37-40)

Thus the Old Covenant is relevant in that it presents to all mankind (whether Israel or any other nation) the principles which are to be interpreted into life as part of following God.

However, whilst they present the foundation that needs to find fulfilment in all our lives, the problem is that without a remedy for sinfulness, without true transformation of the heart, the Laws of God can only be enacted through religious and legal constraints - through external rules and regulations, subject to the interpretation of man rather than God.

The 'Old Covenant' Today

Today, every nation faces the challenge of how the Laws of God become internalised rather than how they should be applied externally. This is the position of modern Israel, just as it is for you and me. In seeking to keep the Old Covenant without the New, Jewish Israel faces the practical problem that without a Temple the Feasts and Sabbath cannot be instituted fully, as well as the deeper, more fundamental concern that there is no sacrifice for sin outside of Jesus.

What role should the Old Covenant play today, then? The Apostle Paul sums up God's purpose in it as this – "Therefore the law was a tutor to bring us to Messiah, that we might be justified by faith" (Gal 3:24). In other words, the Old Covenant prepares the way for the New Covenant to be revealed through Jesus the Messiah to those who will eventually understand.

The New Covenant, announced by Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), transforms what was established through the Old Covenant through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. What was once written on stone and inscribed onto scrolls is to become a living spiritual reality, that not only rightly interprets the Law but also ensures that sinfulness is dealt with – permanently. It is this Law written on the heart, as an inner motivation, that is the means of fulfilment of the Covenant with Abraham.

Thus, the Old Covenant made through Moses is still relevant, inadequate though it is to finalise all God's promises through Abraham. Without constant reference to its principles, mankind is at sea - open to all sorts of humanism and false religion. Regarding Israel specifically, the God of Israel will lead all who take his teaching seriously, and all who seek to be right with him, eventually to have their eyes opened to the truth of the Old Covenant's fulfilment in Messiah Jesus. In these terms the Old Covenant is totally relevant.

Political Pawns in a Middle Eastern Game of Chess

The Palestinian refugee problem was created by, and coincided with, the birth of modern Israel. But the popular understanding that the Jewish state sent them packing is a terrible distortion of the truth.

The newly-reborn nation in fact urged its Arab residents to stay; the call for them to leave in haste came from the surrounding Arab countries in order to clear the way for a multi-pronged military attack designed to abort such nationhood and drive Israel into the sea (see Q&A 10).

As a result, an estimated half-a-million Arabs fled in terror, with many subsequently housed in squalid refugee camps set up in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where they continue to be used as political pawns in an ongoing propaganda campaign aimed at depicting the Jews as bullies.

Refused Accommodation in Arab States

British author Fred Wright reckons these refugees "must rate as some of the most unfortunate people in the modern world"¹ as, along with their descendants, the majority still live in temporary settlements.

They are not, however, victims of Israel's hard-heartedness, but of the stubborness and cunning of their fellow-Arab hosts, who could easily have absorbed them into their own communities, just as Israel has done for many of the 700,000 Jews² expelled at the same time from Arab countries. Jews of the dispersion who had made their home in North African and other Arab nations for centuries were thrown out in response to the United Nations vote recognising Israel, but were quickly welcomed and absorbed by the fledgling state.

Meanwhile Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq refused to accommodate their Arab brethren, even though they had just fled Israel at their hosts' behest, choosing rather to use them for a Middle Eastern 'game' of chess intended to checkmate Jewish aspirations, blaming Israel instead for a political mess that continues to this day.

Put simply, the refugees are a creation of the Arab states surrounding Israel, yet much of the media would have you believe Israel was the culprit. It is an upside-down world we live in today in which evil is called good, and good evil (see Isaiah 5:20). And the absurdity of this phenomenon is highlighted by the fact that, as part of Britain's aid programme, an £18,000 a year stipend is paid (via the Palestinian Authority) to a couple of jailed Palestinians who stabbed a British woman and murdered her friend.³

Palestinian Propaganda

So, because the situation was not dealt with at the time, as Israel had done with her own refugees, the problem now involves some five million people, with the descendants of those first refugees also claiming a right of return to what they regard as their own land of 'Palestine'.

Of course the unfortunate refugees had succumbed to the false hope of being able to return to a territory cleansed of Jews. But like so many previous attempts at Jewish annihilation, the planned genocide in 1948 failed as a 'young David' overcame a 'Goliath' of six nations bent on his destruction, and would yet survive further wars against the odds.

In fighting Israel over land promised to them by God (see earlier questions in this series), the result is inevitable. Speaking of Israel's restoration, the Lord declared through the prophet Amos: "I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted..." (Amos 9:15).

But most Palestinians believe the lie that the land has been stolen from them, and a common perception is that the current wave of stabbings and shootings is borne of despair over general mistreatment and injustice. Whereas Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says this "cheapens the meaning of the struggle...What motivates the youths of the West Bank is the spirit of jihad (holy war)."⁴

The real reason behind Palestinian terror, he says, is the 'liberation' of Jerusalem and replacing the State of Israel with 'Palestine'. In other words, a two-state solution is not seen as an option. They only want one state, and it isn't Israel!

Readers may well wonder how Palestinians can get away with so much propaganda. But as Israel Today journalist Ryan Jones puts it, "many, if not most, Palestinians have no problem telling bald-faced lies in order to smear Israel and advance their own nationalist agenda. This is because Muslims are permitted to lie to 'infidels' in service to Islamic causes, a concept known as taqiyya."⁵

You decide who is telling the truth!

References

1 Wright, F. Father, Forgive Us. Olive Press/Monarch Books, pp211-212.

2 Crombie, K. Anzacs, Empires and Israel's Restoration. Vocational Education and Training Publications.

3 Constable, N. You pay two Palestinian terrorists who left this British woman for dead and killed her friend £9,000 each every year - as a 'REWARD'. The Daily Mail, 4 April 2016.

4 Sadan, T. Despair, Hope and Palestinian Terror. Israel Today, March 2016, p10.

5 Ibid.

Israel is not blameless. It was Jewish terrorists who massacred around 100 Arab villagers at Deir Yassin as fighting escalated on the eve of modern Israel's re-birth.

But the UN, which voted to recognise the new state, now accuses her of being the world's worst violator of women's rights.¹ In view of the atrocious conditions for women in many other parts of the world, such a statement is clearly disproportionate in the extreme, which is ironic as the nations are always accusing Israel of disproportionate responses to knife, shooting and rocket attacks that assail her on an almost daily basis.

When a nation's defence is at stake, appropriate measures need to be taken; it is not an amateur golf competition in which a helping 'handicap' is given to those with less ability. Sadly, there is a tendency among many Christians today to believe that, in supporting the Palestinians, they are standing with the poor and oppressed, and that this justifies being anti-Israel.

But taking sides in the conflict is to grossly misunderstand the situation, both from a political and spiritual point of view. As I've pointed out earlier in this series, the Western media has gullibly swallowed lies and propaganda designed to cast Israel as the Middle East bully which, if repeated often enough, eventually becomes accepted as fact.

A 'Christian' Response

Christians familiar with their Bible should know better. For we are urged to avoid being conformed to worldly values (Rom 12:2). We should love and support Israel, not because they deserve it, but because God requires us to do so (Gen 12:3, Isa 40:1, Ps 122:6) - and the best way to show it is by proclaiming the good news they first brought to us Gentiles.

If we are convinced Jesus is the Prince of Peace, we know that the answer to the conflict is not in taking sides, but in praying that both Arabs and Jews will increasingly experience a revelation of the Jewish Messiah who alone can break down the dividing wall of hostility through his death on the cross (Eph 2:14).

Both Jews and Palestinians need Jesus and many on both sides are no doubt victims of injustice. If God lays it on your heart to send material help, whether to suffering Palestinians or poverty-stricken Holocaust survivors, then you must act upon it. But remember that Jesus, not politics, is the key to reconciliation. There is a raging battle in the region, not just involving guns and knives, but in the spiritual realm. And it is this that lies at the heart of all the confusion.

For one thing, Islam is driving the agenda for Middle East politics and militancy. It may be politically incorrect to say so, but its cause is in direct conflict with the truth that is in Jesus Christ. The religion is indistinguishable from its political aims, which are to deny Jewish legitimacy and ultimately cover the globe with Islam, meaning submission.

Palestinians, for the most part, are caught up in this spiritual deception – and even its Christian minority has a general tendency to toe the Islamic political line out of desire for acceptance and fear for their safety.

Revelation: the Need of the Hour

What we really need to pray for is revelation – for Muslims, Jews and confused Christians – of the kind experienced by Ali Sayed Husnain Shah, who is from a prominent Shia Muslim family with direct ties to the prophet Muhammad.

When he was 15, he travelled to England from his home in Pakistan to visit his ailing aunt Gulshan and was shocked to learn that she had become a follower of Jesus. He couldn't believe she would dishonour their family in such a way, but soon discovered she had written a book about her conversion. Overcome with curiosity, Ali began reading it and then decided to attend a church service with her. When the pastor asked, "Who wants to see Jesus?" he felt compelled to respond.

"I wanted to see Jesus. He was the riddle at the centre of all this, the reason Aunt Gulshan had turned her back on her family, her heritage and her religion."

As the pastor prayed for him, Ali said he felt heat emanating from the man's hand. At the same time a light behind his eyelids got progressively brighter, his legs crumbled and he was drained of all strength. Then Jesus appeared to him in a powerful vision.² His story is told in his new book, The Cost: My Life on a Terrorist Hit List.³

Notes

1 United for Israel report on the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

2 Ellis, M. Jesus reached descendant of Muhammad in dreams. ASSIST News Service, 9 April 2016.

3 Zondervan, 2016. With J Chester.

'You've got to be taught to hate'

The origin of the conflict between Muslims and Jews goes back thousands of years, to the time of Isaac and Ishmael, as mentioned in Q&A 9. But Jews have lived with Arabs in peaceful co-existence for centuries, particularly in North African countries like Morocco where, in 1939, a quarter of the population of its capital, Casablanca, was Jewish.

The problem, therefore, stems from those who seek to stir up old tensions, especially those influenced by the agenda of Islamic fundamentalism. Radical Muslim movements like ISIS want a return to the roots (radix = Latin for root) of their 'faith', which was born in blood and military conquest. Mohammed, who came on the scene around 600 AD, claimed to bring God's final word, so Jews and Christians (whose faith is much older) were regarded as 'infidels' and duly slaughtered.

Now we are witnessing a return to radical Islam, but our politicians (out of a combination of ignorance, fear and compromise) would like us to believe it is a peaceful religion unconnected with the brutal terrorism we see all around us committed in the name of Allah.

But even in Saudi Arabia, a newscaster has been brave enough to challenge this assumption. Nadine Al-Budair said it was time to admit the correlation between the violent attacks and the faith-based teachings of Islam.¹

It is true that most UK Muslims are peace-loving people with whom we have no quarrel. But that's not the same as saying Islam is a peaceful religion. Thankfully, most followers do not take the Qur'an literally and thus do not resort to murder and mayhem directed against both Jews and Christians.² In fact, I am quite sure the majority of Muslims are not being influenced by calls for jihad (Holy War) – not surprisingly, many are embarrassed and ashamed of it – and that an enormous number are open to the truth. And these tumultuous times are a perfect opportunity to show them Christian love and compassion.

But it has to be said that the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East is an offence to Islam in the eyes of many Muslims. The Qur'an, for instance, describes Jews as unbelievers who spread evil (Sura 5:64) and are enemies of Allah, his Prophet (Mohammed) and the angels (Sura 2:97-8).³

As I've said, Jews had lived peacefully with Arabs for centuries – until 1948, with the birth of modern Israel. What does this tell us? Satan knows that his time is short, because Jewish restoration is a key sign of the imminent return of the Messiah. So the enemy stirs up dissension and opens up old wounds in a determined effort to prevent that happening. Of course it can't be prevented but, like a snake in the last throes of death, he is furiously striking out with as much venom as possible.

Radical Islamists are even expecting the Mahdi (their version of the Messiah), who will force everyone to submit to Islam. But he is more likely to be the Antichrist. We are entering a period of great upheaval and terrible persecution for those who hold to the faith of Jesus, the one and only Saviour of mankind.

Today, all over the Middle East, Arabs are being taught from an early age to hate Jews. It's even part of their formal education; Israel isn't even shown on the map in their classrooms. It's as if they have no right to exist. It's a bit like the way Christians are beginning to be treated in our culture where you are now despised and marginalized if you believe in a Creator.

A song from the musical South Pacific, written by Jewish composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, perfectly illustrates the problem: "You've got to be taught to hate."⁴ The issue highlighted in the 1958 movie was one of race – specifically the way white Americans demonstrated their prejudice against the coloured Polynesian people. Jewish people know all about that.

Even Britain has played her part in stirring up tension in the Middle East – for example, through her consistent appeasement of Arab aspirations to the detriment of Jewish hopes, and by encouraging the appointment (during the British Mandate of Palestine) of Haj Amin al-Husseini as Grand Mufti (chief religious leader) of Jerusalem which allowed fundamental Islam to establish a foothold in Israel and which duly fanned the flames of the Arab-Israeli conflict that continues to this day.

But while the devil sows dissension, God offers reconciliation. I have witnessed numerous examples of Arabs testifying as to how they grew up hating Jews, but now love them – and all because of a revelation of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, who has broken down the dividing wall of hostility and made the two one (Eph 2:14).

In addition, not all Arab states are opposed to Israel, though some co-operate out of expediency because they have a common enemy – Saudi Arabia, for example, shares a common enemy with Israel in Iran, borne out of the age-old rivalry between the Sunni and Shi'ite streams of Islam.

What we see in the Middle East is a picture of man's hostility to God, but there is peace in Jerusalem among those who have recognized that Jesus died on a cross outside its ancient walls to bring reconciliation with God and each other.

References

1 Watch: Saudi news anchor urges fellow Muslims to 'feel shame' over terrorist attacks. Jerusalem Post, 9 April 2016

2 For example, Qur'an 5.33, 9.29 & 30; see also Islam – The Challenge to the Church by Patrick Sookhdeo (Isaac Publishing) p69.

3 Vander Elst, P. In Defence of Israel, original research document, May 2015.

4 "You've got to be taught to hate and fear,
You've got to be taught from year to year,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught!"

A case of identity theft

The general perception created by the media, campaign groups and politicians is that Israel is an illegal occupier of land stolen from the Palestinians. But this couldn't be further from the truth.

For one thing, there has never been such a thing as a Palestinian state, though that is of course the subject of ongoing negotiations that have so far proved fruitless.

But as a temporary compromise out of a desire for peaceful co-existence at a time when there seemed no way forward but continued bloodshed, a 'Palestinian Authority' was created to administer districts under dispute.

The 1948 War of Independence had given birth to modern Israel, but at a cost – not only in the devastation caused by the conflict itself, but in the nations' agreement to a division of the land originally promised to Israel by Britain around the time she was given the Mandate (by the League of Nations) to prepare a Jewish homeland for statehood.

The United Nations Partition Plan of 1947 envisaged Jerusalem as an international city and offered Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem as Arab Palestinian territory, but it was rejected out of hand by the Arabs, who wanted all of 'Palestine' – with no Jewish citizens at all.

Come the war, however, when journalists descended on Jerusalem like vultures expecting to see a 'still-born' birth of the Jewish state (which didn't happen), the scenario naturally changed.

Israel amazed the world by surviving an onslaught from six Arab nations, but Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria – the biblical heartland of Israel – along with East Jerusalem, which included the precious Old City, comprising as it did the holiest site in all Judaism, the Temple Mount, site of their ancient first and second temples. In addition, Egypt claimed the Gaza Strip which abutted its north-eastern border.

So Israel had reluctantly begun its new life as a divided nation which, as the prophet Joel points out, is a serious offence to God invoking divine judgment on the perpetrators. "In those days and at that time, when I [the Lord] restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat [a place of judgment]. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land." (Joel 3:1-2)

Jerusalem, "the city of the Great King" (Psalm 48:2), was split in two by barricades separating east and west. But Israel recovered these territories in a 1967 defensive war lasting just six days, which restored the walled Old City into Jewish hands for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.

Remember, they had been illegally annexed by Jordan and were never part of 'Palestine', a state yet to exist. It was only because of repeated setbacks to their ambitions that Arab 'Palestinians', under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, founder of the PLO terrorist organisation, began the process of 're-educating' a gullible world about land that had allegedly been stolen from them, and committing identity theft in the process. Until then, the term 'Palestinian' could just as readily have been used to refer to Jews living in the territory formerly known as Palestine, as to Arabs also residing there.¹

As Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely explained to a visiting group of Harvard law students: "The time has come to return to the legal truth according to international law – the 'occupation' is a lie from the Palestinian libel factory, together with the claims of apartheid. This is slander disconnected from the legal reality. The state of Israel did not occupy Judea and Samaria in 1967 from the state of Palestine, because there never was such a state. Jordan was illegally in possession of the territory, and we liberated Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in a defensive war.

After they were unable to defeat us in war throughout the years, the stage of delegitimization began; the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement negates the state of Israel's right to exist, and the way to fight it is by revealing the lies and letting the truth be heard throughout the world."²

Regarding the legal status of Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, the 2012 Levy Report determined that Israel's presence is fully legal according to international law.

Notes

1 Palestine (derived from Palestina) was the name given to the land by the Romans as a final insult to the Hebrew people after putting down the Second Jewish Revolt of 135 AD.

2 Speaking on 16 March 2016 to Harvard Law students, reported by Jerusalem News Network. JNN Newsletter, 17 March 2016.

Jews from all over the world have been returning to Israel since 1948. This is seen as fulfilment of prophecy, but causes many to ask who has the right to the land. This inevitably leads to the question: who is a Jew?

On the face of it, the answer to this question is simple: a Jew is a direct descendant of Jacob's son Judah. Yet, after several thousand years of history, how can anyone be sure that they are in this line of descent - and free from the affects of intermarriage during centuries of history and various phases of captivity and Diaspora?

After the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, from around 740 BC the ten northern tribes of the sons of Jacob began to go into captivity, later to be called the Ten Lost Tribes, as they were henceforth largely lost in the world.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah was also taken into Babylonian captivity after another 150 years had passed, but were not totally lost. Nebuchadnezzar's final siege of Jerusalem was in 586 BC. Whereas uncertainty mounted concerning the whereabouts of the Ten Lost Tribes, the Babylonian captivity came to an end within 70 years, so that a remnant of the Jews returned to Israel and continued as an identifiable tribe in their own land for about another 600 years.

Nevertheless, the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and the consequent dispersion of the Jews from Judea followed and it was not until 1948 that the scattered Jews began to return to their ancient land again. During the intervening years communities of Jews established themselves in various towns and cities of the world, and despite many forms of persecution preserved their identity through their traditions. On re-occupation their land was named Israel. So today the inhabitants of modern-day Israel are known as Israelis and come largely from the Jewish communities of the world.

Yet, the question still has to be answered as to who is a Jew, even if it is simply to satisfy the question as to who is eligible to return to the ancient land. If we were to go back to the 1st century AD we have evidence that many Jews kept accurate records of their genealogy and counted it important to preserve their tribal identity. For example, both Matthew and Luke record the genealogy of Jesus as of the tribe of David, the King of the Jews, in a direct line from Judah.

But how does one check this today? Though many records have been kept, the main evidence of Jewishness is through membership of one of the Jewish communities of the diaspora. Such membership takes account of conversion and integration into the community as well as direct descent.

With this inevitable ambiguity, the leaders of Israel therefore needed to derive a legal definition for the Law of Return following the establishment of Israel in 1948. This Law of Return has become quite a technical issue (see here and here for more information on this); the basic rules were made on 5 July 1950, followed by further clarification in 1970 and later. The main criterion is:

The law since 1970 applies to those born Jews (having a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother), those with Jewish ancestry (having a Jewish father or grandfather) and converts to Judaism (Orthodox, Reform, or Conservative denominations—not secular—though Reform and Conservative conversions must take place outside the state, similar to civil marriages). [emphases added]

Even with this law in place, its practical application remains a difficult process, and Jewish identity relies heavily on membership of Jewish communities, preserved (one might say miraculously) through Torah observance over many centuries.

One topic of debate remains the status of Messianic Jews. On the one hand there have been attempts not to recognise Messianic Jews as true Jews. On the other hand, Messianic Jews sometimes call themselves completed Jews and therefore see themselves as fully enlightened Jews, whilst not denying the right of Jews with a physical ancestry going back to Jacob's son Judah to be recognised as Jewish after the flesh.

Conversion to Judaism is also an issue to address. We must remember that Ruth the Moabitess was technically excluded from membership of the community of Israel (Deut 23:3-4), but as a convert was accepted as fully Jewish – indeed, she was the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:13-22). Her statement of faith in the God of Israel (Ruth 1:16-17) was sufficient to make her a convert and marriage into a Jewish family ensured her identity as a Jew.

However much we debate the physical line of the Jews (and indeed of all the tribes of Israel) we can only go so far. In the end God alone knows who are his. The present return to the land of Israel will carry ambiguities, but God will show the way that his covenant with Abraham will be finalised prior to the return of Yeshua (Jesus). The Book of Revelation (chapter 7) shows that God will retain a remnant from every tribe of Israel who are virgin, that is of pure descent, whilst dealing with the nation of Israel as a whole in whatever mixed-multitude are gathered in the end times.

The Apostle Paul also made a telling point that we must bear in mind as we consider this and turn our concerns into prayer:

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward of the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Rom 2:28-29)

While the right to return to the land of Israel is one question, the right to return to God that he might bestow eternal life is another entirely. This leads us to the deepest aspect of the question - who is a Jew? - and the key question of our age.

Birthed in a bloodbath in 1948, just a few years after losing six million of her people in the Holocaust, Israel has since borne the brunt of repeated attempts to wipe her off the face of the earth. Under the successive wars and waves of terrorist attacks has often lain thinly-veiled anti-Semitic feeling.

The Six Day War, 1967

After surviving the 1948 War of Independence despite being outnumbered 40:1, the fledgling state had, by 1967, built up some strength. And this time the opposition – still overwhelming – was defeated in six days.

It was around this time that a propaganda war was launched by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), using claims about land 'stolen' from 'the Palestinian people' to delegitimise Israel (these claims have been contradicted by successive international political agreements). They matched their rhetoric with a massive build-up of weapons supplied by sympathisers, claiming as one of their early 'prizes' the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Yom Kippur War, 1973

In 1973, an Islamic coalition tried once more to drive Israel into the sea. Once again the embattled young nation survived, but only just, and in a way that can only be described as miraculous.

The Yom Kippur War (so named because it broke out on the Day of Atonement) lasted four months and saw the now 25-year-old state come close to annihilation. It involved the biggest and most ferocious tank battles in history and Israel was hugely outnumbered both in men and arms. Yet just when the enemies from Syria and Egypt could have overwhelmed their victims, they inexplicably halted their advance, allowing Israel to re-group. Jordan, thankfully, did not enter the war, which was quite possibly another factor contributing to Israel's survival.

The reason Syria and Egypt were so well equipped was because the Soviet Union supplied them with weapons. When a Russian warship was dispatched to Alexandria armed with ballistic missiles containing nuclear warheads, President Nixon – fortunately not too distracted by his domestic problems over the 'Watergate' scandal – declared an international American military alert for the first time since the Cuban crisis of 1962. As a result, the ship sailed back to the Black Sea and a possible holocaust was narrowly averted.¹

In the words of former Muslim fundamentalist Dr Daniel Shahesteh, "God chose Israel and set her aside for himself in order to fulfil his eternal plan for the nations through her..."² "Amazingly", he wrote in an article for newspaper Israel and Christians Today, "the enemies of Israel have been trying to destroy her for thousands of years. Yet she still survives!"

False Peace, True Peace

Yes, there have been peace treaties – notably with Egypt and Jordan – and there are unofficial, under-the-radar, economic ties between Israel and some of its Arab neighbours. But current attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are guaranteed to fail, because they are based on the false assumption that both sides want peace. The only true opportunity for peace, of course, is in Jesus - as explained earlier in this series.

Meanwhile, unprovoked terrorist attacks on Israelis have been going on for decades. As fast as you deal with anti-Semitism in one corner, it emerges from another. Sadly, these events are often turned upside-down by the media so that Israel looks like the aggressor. At present, Jews are being knifed, shot and run over by cars and, if the assailant is shot dead in the process, it is depicted by much of the media as an 'execution'. Israel thus becomes the bully and oppressor. Even some Arabs have described it as a 'sick game'.³

Israeli leaders will do almost anything for peace – and sometimes go too far as with the late Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. The enclave has since become a hotbed for terror group Hamas, who have provoked Israel repeatedly with rocket fire.

To Attack Israel is to Fight God

All this is really a matter of the heart; our attitude to Israel reveals the state of our spirituality – that is, whether we are for or against the God of Israel (Gen 12:3).

Israel's continued existence, both as a people and as a nation, is testament to the reality of God. Those who attack her are actually fighting God – a futile exercise, even for atheists. Thankfully, many Christians have been engaged in serious intercessory prayer throughout this turbulent time, which no doubt had something to do with the miraculous outcomes we have witnessed. So keep praying for Israel!

References

1 Gardner, C, 2013. Israel the Chosen (available on Amazon), gleaned from Lance Lambert's Battle for Israel (Kingsway, 1993).

2 Ibid.

3 Jerusalem Post, 9 April 2016

It has been rightly said that the pen is mightier than the sword; and just as this truth has been used to great effect for the good of the world - as in the case of gospel proclamation - so it also has the potential for spreading cancerous ideology, like Marxism and atheism.

An Upside-Down Media World

Lies repeated often enough become accepted as fact, as in Germany when its people were assailed by horrible misrepresentation of the Jews through Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. And the same applies to the distorted narrative of Israel's legitimacy since Arab-Muslim fanatics took over the baton from the Nazis.

As a result, much of the mainstream media in the West has swallowed an upside-down version of Middle East political realities, ignoring historical facts while choosing instead to believe the mantra that Israel has no right to exist, that they have stolen Arab land and have no historic link to the region.

Attitudes to Israel become both illogical and irrational, so that even legitimate defence under the provocation of constant rocket fire is deemed disproportionate if, for example, more are killed on the aggressor's side than on the side of the nation defending itself – as if it's some sort of handicap competition.

I believe that rising anti-Semitism in Britain is built around this oft-repeated media narrative, invented by 'Palestinian nationalism', depicting tiny Israel as the Middle East bully.

The 'Bully' Narrative

In a nutshell, the ultimate goal of this narrative is the destruction of Israel. Having failed to achieve this in three major conventional wars between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbours (1948, 1967 and 1973), Palestinian leaders adopted a new and increasingly effective strategy – to demonise Israel internationally, particularly in the eyes of Western liberal opinion, by re-branding the conflict as a heroic struggle for Palestinian freedom and self-determination against an oppressive 'occupying' power.¹

In reality, the real purpose behind the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is to provide a launch pad for an eventual 'second phase' war of extermination against an Israel psychologically weakened by decades of terrorism, economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

Middle East Media

Violence against Jews is constantly encouraged through Palestinian and Arab media. If you wish to check this out, visit the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute which monitors Arab and wider Islamic media and video clips with English translations of material originally appearing in Arabic, Farsi, Turkish or some other Middle Eastern tongue. In addition, the Palestinian Media Watch focuses specifically on Palestinian media output, which recycles classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and employs the same kind of abusive language and stereotypes used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.

What's more, the official PA logo brazenly shows a map of a future Palestinian state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, clearly indicating that there is no likelihood of their being satisfied with a 'two-state solution' in the long term.

Western Media Coverage

Mainstream media coverage of the conflict is typically biased against Israel in its failure to tell the historical truth about that conflict, its uncritical acceptance of the narrative of Palestinian 'victimhood', its failure to report and analyse the failings of Palestinian leaders and institutions, and its failure to reveal the degree to which truthful reporting of Hamas activity in Gaza (for example) has been hampered or prevented by the intimidation of journalists.

This general media bias also reveals itself in a disproportionate coverage of Israel's shortcomings (real or imagined) compared with a relative lack of scrutiny of the mass carnage and tyranny which prevails in much of the Arab-Islamic world.

For example, Italian reporter Gabriel Barbati disclosed that Israel was telling the truth and Hamas was lying when he confirmed that the deaths of ten people at the Al-Shati refugee camp on 28 July 2014 was not the result of Israeli fire, as had been widely reported (and in the case of NBC never corrected), but of a misfired Hamas missile. But he only disclosed this information once he was out of Gaza, beyond the reach of Hamas' retaliation. Not surprisingly, truth has been the first casualty of Hamas' intimidation and manipulation of the international press.

Complicated by Politics

At the same time, a worldwide revival of radical Islam is wreaking havoc across much of Central Asia, Europe and Africa. And the likes of ISIS share a hatred of Israel with the Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas, which ironically leaves the West's pro-Palestinian lobby in cahoots with the very people who are trying to destroy our Western democracy and culture.

Yet despite the clear evidence to the contrary, Prime Minister David Cameron tries to convince us that Islam is a peaceful religion, whereas he is actually bowing to political correctness and fear. This is a repeat of what happened during the British Mandate of Palestine, when murderous threats saw our Government capitulate to Arab demands at the cost of Jewish aspirations.

So it is that today our politicians and media dare not rock the boat by facing up to reality. That radical Islam represents a threat to our society seems patently obvious, especially since 9/11, 7/7, the Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks. But we continue to sweep this fact under the carpet.

Even evangelical Christian publications shy off tackling the issue, as I have discovered through my own experience. One magazine was keen for me to contribute but backed away after my first submission – a topical article on the threat of Islam. Those who wish to silence such truths find themselves in league with the Hard Left, who in turn have joined forces with the Far Right Islamist cause opposing both the people of Israel and the God of Israel – hence the reason Christians become a target.

Counter-Arguments and Contradictions

But thinking people in the Muslim world are challenging the status quo – for example, our newscaster friend in Saudi Arabia (mentioned earlier in the series) called on her fellow Muslims to stop pretending that there is no connection between the teachings of Islam and the violent attacks we are increasingly having to witness.

And the various camps betray such bizarre contradictions. Someone has tweeted that, though liberal media like The Guardian are quick to rally to the Palestinian cause, it doesn't seem to occur to them that they are taking sides with what a recent survey has discovered to be an extremely homophobic society.²

But as the Prophet Isaiah wrote some 2,700 years ago: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isa 5:20).

Talking of The Guardian in a more positive light, it was one of their highly-respected veteran journalists who exposed the absurd media portrayal of Israel as an 'apartheid' state for the nonsense that it is. Having worked as a correspondent in South Africa for 26 years, and having lived in Israel for 17, Benjamin Pogrund made it clear that there could be no comparison; that Israel is not remotely like that.

"Dragging in the emotive world 'apartheid' is not only incorrect but creates confusion and distracts from the main issue", he wrote.³ And referring to the security barrier – originally built to keep out suicide bombers – as the 'apartheid wall' was "untrue propaganda...Of course Israel isn't perfect, despite its many and wondrous achievements since 1948. However, for critics it's not enough to denounce its ills and errors: instead, they exaggerate and distort and present an ugly caricature far distant from reality."⁴

So why, he asks, is the apartheid accusation pushed so relentlessly, especially by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (supported by supermarkets such as the Co-op, which refuses to sell Jaffa oranges)?

I believe campaigners want Israel declared an apartheid state so it becomes a pariah, open to the world's severest sanctions. Many want not just an end to the occupation but an end to Israel itself.

Tragically, some well-intentioned, well-meaning people in Britain and other countries are falling for the BDS line without realizing what they are actually supporting. BDS campaigners and other critics need to be questioned: Why do they single out Israel, above all others, for a torrent of false propaganda? Why is Israel the only country in the world whose very right to existence is challenged in this way?⁵

More on this topic next week.

References

1 In defence of Israel, research done by Philip Vander Elst, May 2015.

2 Peace in Jerusalem – olivepresspublisher.com – p129, quoting 'The Global Divide on Homosexuality', Pew Research Centre, 4 June 2013.

3 Pogrund, B. Israel has many injustices. But it is not an apartheid state. The Guardian, 22 May 2015.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

I couldn't think of a better way to begin Part II of the answer to this question by quoting from one of my favourite writers, Melanie Phillips. While acknowledging that it is not uncommon for issues to be misunderstood out of ignorance, laziness or indifference, the brilliant former Daily Mail columnist writes:

What is unique about the treatment of Israel is that a conflict subjected to an unprecedented level of scrutiny should be presented in such a way as to drive out truth and rationality. History is turned on its head; facts and falsehoods, victims and victimizers are reversed; logic is suspended, and a fictional narrative now widely accepted as incontrovertible truth. This fundamental error has been spun into a global web of potentially catastrophic false conclusions. The fraught issue of Israel sits at the epicentre of the West's repudiation of reason.

Many of the errors and misrepresentations about the Middle East conflict not only promote falsehood but turn the truth inside out...In Britain and much of Europe, the mainstream, dominant view among the educated classes is that Israel itself is intrinsically illegitimate.¹

The narrative that Israel has been foisted onto Arab land is now accepted as true in the West. "But it is false," she asserts. Please read her book for a full treatment of this and other issues. It is dynamite, but sadly her views became too strong for the Mail, from what I can gather.

Take the hot potato involving successive wars with Gaza. A Canadian journalist claimed that the facts didn't support the accepted story that a United Nations school was hit by Israeli shells. Writing for the Canadian Globe and Mail, Patrick Martin investigated the shelling that led to the tragic deaths of 43 civilians.

He reported: "Physical evidence and interviews with several eye-witnesses, including a teacher who was in the schoolyard at the time of the shelling, make it clear: While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound, no-one in the compound was killed. The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where all three mortar shells landed. Stories of one or more shells landing inside the schoolyard were inaccurate."²

He added: "While the killing of 43 civilians on the street may itself be grounds for investigation, it falls short of the act of shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers."

Martin's story confirms the under-reported accounts that the Israel Defence Force accurately returned fire to the location from which it was being shelled by Hamas terrorists who were engaging in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as a double war crime – attacking Israeli civilians whilst hiding behind Palestinian civilians.

More unhelpful propaganda surrounded the boarding in 2010 of an aid flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade on Gaza (introduced for security reasons), which sparked off predictable fury from the world at large when it led to the killing of nine crew members.

As in so many previous cases, the incident was widely portrayed in the media as the bullying IDF overpowering innocent victims who only wished to help ferry much-needed cargo to the stricken Gaza Strip. But the reality was very different. For one thing, Israel is not against such aid getting to Gaza – they are simply trying to ensure that it doesn't include arms destined to be used against them and it seems perfectly reasonable, therefore, that such ships should dock at Israeli ports.

For another, there is no question but that the Israelis came under fierce attack when they boarded the ship. As Malcolm Hedding of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem said: "Any fair-minded person, after viewing the IDF's video footage of the incident, will concede that Israeli commandos were definitely not boarding a ship-full of peaceful activists...for embedded among the passengers were a large number of well-armed militants."³ And in fact it later emerged that these 'activists' were radical Islamic jihadists fully prepared to sacrifice their lives, having left statements to this effect with families and friends. But the international community rushed to condemn Israel before the real facts emerged.

What is Left Unsaid

A few years ago, when the BBC hosted a discussion on growing anti-Semitism in Britain, it was interesting to note that even in the studio there was strong antipathy towards Israel. This became clear when everyone clapped at the mention of "what Israel is doing in Gaza", and yet no-one talks of what Gaza is doing to Israel^.4

The former was a reference to charges of 'war crimes' committed by Israel for apparently targeting civilians while also responding 'disproportionately' to constant attacks from Gaza simply because Israelis lost fewer men than their counterparts in the conflict. But it is rarely, if ever, mentioned that the IDF do something virtually unknown in warfare by dropping leaflets to residents warning of an impending attack, to give them time to escape.

Sometimes media bias is evident from what is not reported. For example, whenever disasters occur around the world, Israel is often the first to offer help and expertise, and even now their doctors are treating soldiers wounded across the border in Syria.

Something else rarely mentioned is the fact that Israel as a nation needs to restore its relationship with God, as in Jehoshaphat's day. Israel too has fallen into the ways of the world – with abortion and homosexuality rife, for example – and needs to repent and return to the God of her fathers who is (or should be) at the centre of the regular Jewish feasts.

Another fact greatly ignored, despite the cost to the British taxpayer, is the corruption on a grand scale practised by the Palestinian Authority. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 20 years ago, the Palestinians have received more than 25 times more aid per capita than the amount of money donated from the United States to Europe under the post-World War II Marshall Plan, which paid for the complete reconstruction and rehabilitation of the European economy. Put in simple terms, with the money donated to the PA over this time, we could have reconstructed the European economy 25 times! Even according to Arabic newspaper reports, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas receives a salary of one million euros per month – more than 30 times that of US President Barack Obama!⁵

All of which makes talk of Palestinians suffering economic oppression at the hands of Israel patent nonsense. At the end of the day, we are witnessing a global battle for truth, with the facts suffering from the never-ending onslaught of both moral relativism and outright lying. Within Islamic cultures, the latter is a commonly accepted practice, particularly if it's to further a cause. Former PLO assassin Taysir 'Tass' Saada, who now follows Jesus and is a friend of Israel, has explained that "lying is viewed within Islam as an acceptable tactic if it advances the goals of the religion".⁶

The need for truth has never been greater and, as Tass Saada has discovered to his eternal joy, it can only ultimately be found in Jesus, who said: "I am the way and the truth and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

References

1 The World Turned Upside Down, Encounter Books, p53.
2 Gardner, C, 2013. Israel the Chosen. Create Space (available on Amazon), p75.
3 Ibid p77.
4 Ibid p78.
5 Gardner, C, 2015. Peace in Jerusalem. Olive Press Publisher, p146.
6 Ibid, p104, quoting Saada, T with Merrill, D, 2010. Once an Arafat Man, Tyndale Publishing.

If you love Jesus, you should love the Jew!

The front cover of the May 2016 edition of the Israel Today magazine neatly – and humorously - sums up the answer to this question. It's a cartoon depicting a protestor advocating a boycott of Israeli products and a man in a white robe (presumably Jesus) holding an open Bible. The protestor angrily points at the book, declaring: "This is also 'Made in Israel'!"

Need I say more? Without Israelis, we have nothing – absolutely nothing – of eternal value in our lives. They gave us the Bible, along with the authors of all but perhaps two of its 66 books. And it is through the Jews that we have the Messiah, on whose words much of Western civilisation has been built.

Our Jewish Roots

Gentile believers owe everything to Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, and so much to the Apostle Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews who answered God's call to bring us the Gospel. Fortunately, Paul warned the Roman Christians against arrogance in thinking they could cut themselves off from the Hebraic roots of their faith. To such he thundered: "You do not support the root, but the root supports you!" (Rom 11:18) It is only by God's grace that we have been "grafted in" as a wild shoot to the olive tree that is Israel so that we "now share in its nourishing sap" (v17), the implication being that, if we disown our relationship with Israel, we will dry up and die!

It is interesting that the section of this letter dealing specifically with Israel is immediately followed by an appeal not to conform any longer "to the pattern of this world" in our thinking (Rom 12:1f). Those who have become convinced by the world's propaganda that Israel is a pariah deserving of international boycott and sanctions have swallowed a poisonous lie and are certainly not living according to the truth of the gospel.

Clearly, disciples of Jesus down the ages have worshipped the God of Israel, who was first revealed to the world through the Jewish people and is now made known to all through Christ, who told the woman at the well that "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). And although called to be an Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul nevertheless emphasised that the gospel was to be preached "to the Jew first" (Rom 1:16).

God's Eternal Faithfulness

Our God is the God of Israel! That means that their history is also our history. We have not replaced them in God's purposes, as some suggest, supposedly because they rejected Jesus. For one thing, it would be against God's character to break his promise. And in any case, many of the Jews of Jesus' day loved him (Matt 26:5). If that hadn't been the case, we would never have had the Church, originally made up almost entirely of Jews who heard about the wonders of God on the Day of Pentecost (Shavuot) which drew Hebrews from around the known world to Jerusalem for the feast.

God declared his undying love for Israel through Jeremiah when he said: "I have loved you with an everlasting love..." (Jer 3:.3) And the New Covenant, also spoken of by the prophet (Jer 31:31), would essentially be with the 'House of Israel', though indeed this was to be greatly augmented by the inclusion of Gentiles "grafted in" to the olive tree thanks to the untiring efforts of St Peter and St Paul, among others.

End Time Return

But there'll come a day, shortly before the return of Jesus, when we will witness a huge increase in the number of Jews acknowledging his Messiahship (Rom 11:26). And this is something we Gentiles need to be part of – assisting with the end time re-gathering of the Jewish people, both physically to their land and spiritually to their Lord.

The Bible clearly teaches that Israel will be restored in the final days before Jesus' return, and that this will be in two stages – first, to the land (Ezek 36:24) and then to the Lord (Ezek 36:26, Jer 31:33) when he would give them a "new heart". Zechariah says the Messiah would directly intervene when the world's armies attack Jerusalem (Zech 14:2), that he would stand on the Mount of Olives (v4) as the angels predicted after his ascension (Acts 1:11), and that those who pierced him would mourn for him as for a firstborn son (Zech 14:10).

If it is the case that the final days of this age will be wound up in this way, then the eyes of all Christians should be on Israel as they watch God's restoration plan unfold and warn the world of impending judgment. Many pastors believe that a concern for Israel is simply the lot of a few like-minded souls. But no! We are all part of Israel if we worship the God of Israel, who has made himself known through his beloved Son, and we all have a duty and responsibility to love and support these brothers-in-the-flesh of Jesus. "For whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matt 25:40). God will even judge the nations on this basis. "For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you [Israel] will perish; it will be utterly ruined" (Isa 60:12).

Challenge to Christians

If Israel's restoration is among the key signs of the imminent return of Messiah, then it surely has to become a priority for Christians to love, support and encourage her – through prayer (Ps 122:6; Isa 62:6), preaching the gospel, practical help such as facilitating their return to the land and financially supporting their poor (especially Holocaust survivors) and through defending their political right to exist and defend themselves.

Jesus died on the cross as the innocent "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) but will return in great splendour, still as the sacrificed Lamb, but also as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5) and "the Root and Offspring of David" (Rev 22:16). Many avoid preaching on the 'end times' because they know they will have to bring Israel into the equation, or else explain it away. If the UK Church stood foursquare behind Israel (by which I don't mean they need to support their every political move), I don't believe we'd witness nearly as much anti-Semitism here as we are doing today.

That Israel is tied up with the end times is as plain from the Scriptures as a pikestaff. We should surely be studying the Bible with one hand and a newspaper with the other, and acting upon what the Word says we should believe, do and teach in light of the signs of the times, which the men of Issachar observed so diligently in their day (1 Chron 12:32). Psalm 83, for example, written some 3,000 years ago, speaks so clearly of today's Israeli-Palestinian conflict, thus: "Come," they [Israel's enemies] say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more" (v4).

Last, but not least – in fact it is perhaps lesson one in answering this big question – is the urgent need to apply the promise God made to Abraham, that he would bless those who blessed him and bring judgment on those who cursed him, adding that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen 12:3).

Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has urged support for Israel on the basis that "if it goes down, we all go down". He argues that the Jewish state is at the cutting edge in the battle between militant Islam and the West and, in a Times article, concludes: "Israel is a fundamental part of the West which is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined."¹

If you love Jesus, you should love Israel.

References

1 London Times, 17 June 2010, also quoted in Gardner, C, 2015. Peace in Jerusalem. www.olivepresspublisher.com.

Hamas – genocidal plotter just like Haman!

Hamas is actually an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement – effectively, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned the so-called 'Arab Spring' that led to such appalling unrest in the Middle East. Almost unanimously recognised around the world as a terrorist organisation, it has nevertheless come to control the Gaza enclave from which it launches a constant volley of rockets aimed at the destruction of Israel (its ultimate goal).

Significantly, we believe, the word hamas in Hebrew means 'terror', or 'to treat violently'.

Hamas has gained some semblance of legitimacy among left-wing groups in the West – for example, Britain's Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has referred to them as "friends"¹ – perhaps partially in view of its partnership with Fatah in the disputed territories, the latter being in charge of the West Bank (incorporating Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem).

Although bitter rivals, they share a common policy – refusal to recognise the Jewish state. As a relative newcomer to the political scene, Hamas (like the Palestinian Authority) has been hugely successful in re-writing history, having managed to persuade much of the media world that Israel has no historical link to the land (despite heaps of archaeological and biblical evidence to the contrary) which, in their view, gives them every right to attack their neighbours.

Hamas Tactics

Hamas propaganda has even stretched to ludicrous claims that Jewish Zionists collaborated with the Nazis, and has been so effective in recent Gaza wars that they have managed to convince numerous gullible journalists that Israel is committing atrocities such as targeting innocent children. But the Hamas military machine is actually using them as 'human shields' in a sick ploy designed to make it look like Israel is committing 'war crimes' when in fact Palestinian kids are being deliberately put in harm's way.²

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rightly counters that Hamas is thus guilty of a "double war crime",³ killing innocent Israelis as well as their own people in a desperate bid to win sympathy for their cause. Former Israeli Premier Golda Meir famously said: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

Tragically, Gaza's children are taught to hate the Jews – and Israel has already been 'wiped off the map' in their geography classes, which depict Palestine as occupying all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

Hamas' Culture of Death

What few realise is that today's Muslim fanatics have historic connections with the Nazis. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti (Muslim religious leader) of Jerusalem in the years leading up to the founding of modern Israel, was in cahoots with Hitler over plans to exterminate the Jews.

As for Hamas, they appear to be a revival of an ancient threat to destroy the Jews under the Persian King Xerxes. The man at the centre of that plot had a very similar name – Haman. Fortunately, God raised up the beautiful Queen Esther to intervene on her people's behalf. She was prepared to sacrifice her life for her people (Est 4:16). But martyrdom under Hamas and its allies is part of a culture of death that seeks to destroy, not save.

The 1988 founding Charter (or Covenant) of Hamas reads: "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one link in the chain of jihad confronting the Zionist invasion...[which] aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take."⁴ Quoting 'the Prophet', it adds "The Day of judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)".⁵

Suicide bombings and other attacks since 1989 have killed hundreds and wounded thousands. Erick Stakelbeck, in The Brotherhood, writes:

The Hamas culture of death is driven by indoctrination that extends virtually from womb to tomb. From earliest childhood, Hamas teaches it adherents the Koran-mandated necessity of destroying Israel, the inferiority and inherent evil of the Jewish people in particular and non-Muslims generally; the glories of martyrdom and suicide attacks and the abundant rewards in the afterlife for those who sacrifice their lives for Allah. If you live in Gaza, these points are bombarded into your brain all day, every day on Hamas TV (including in cartoons and children's programming), in schools, mosques, and on billboards, murals and posters that adorn neighbourhoods, and in parades honoring each new suicide bomber or 'martyr'.⁶

By contrast, Israel does something unique in warfare – informing civilians in advance of their intentions via leaflets, phone calls and text messages. "There is no instance in modern military history where a force has taken greater measures to give the innocents as much chance to get out of the way", writes Steven Bucci, American foreign policy expert and former high-ranking Pentagon official.⁷

Charles Krauthammer, in a Washington Post article on 17 July 2014, challenges apologists for Hamas, who attribute the region's blood lust to Israel, to recall the Jewish withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 in a 'land for peace' deal. Instead of investing in industry and infrastructure, the new rulers spent millions on weapons with which to attack Israel, deliberately placing them "in schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes to better expose their own civilians..."⁸

References

1 E.g. McCann, K. Jeremy Corbyn refuses to denounce terrorist 'friends' Hamas and Hizbollah. The Telegraph, 2 May 2016.

2 Krauthammer, C. Moral clarity in Gaza. Washington Post, 17 July 2014. Also quoted in In Defence of Israel, research by Philip Vander Elst.

3 As told to ABC News, 20 July 2014.

4 Hamas Covenant, 1988. Read online here.

5 Ibid.

6 2013, Regnery Books. Quoted in In Defence of Israel, research by Philip Vander Elst.

7 Bucci, S. The Moral Difference Between Israel and Hamas. The Daily Signal, 17 July 2014. Also quoted in In Defence of Israel, research by Philip Vander Elst.

8 See note 2.

In many respects this question calls for a ditto underneath Hamas, with whom Hezbollah share an intense hatred of Israel and, as fellow terrorists, are committed to its destruction. But there is a much wider issue involved here, which has potential for mass destruction on an apocalyptic scale.

Highly Dangerous Alliances

Unlike Hamas, who attack from Gaza in the south where they have free reign as current rulers of the enclave, Hezbollah¹ operate from territory in Lebanon on Israel's northern border where, again, they have more or less free reign, basically through intimidation of the local population.

Like Hamas, they are also digging tunnels into Israel for the purpose of launching attacks, for which the IDF is on constant alert. And as a proxy of Iran, the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism now working towards nuclear capability, Hezbollah is an extremely dangerous organisation with huge stockpiles of weapons specifically designed for use against the Jewish state.

Adding to this toxic mix is the shadowy role of Russia, moving into the region in a military capacity ostensibly geared to defeating Islamic State, but also aimed at propping up Syria's Assad regime. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu has had several meetings with Moscow's Vladimir Putin in a bid to cement the diplomatic relations newly-created 25 years ago, but clearly also to mitigate further tension in the region.

According to the Jerusalem News Network, it remains doubtful whether Putin will accede to Bibi's repeated plea to withhold the S-300 missile system from Iran, or prevent Syria from transferring sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah.

Shaky Outlook

It all looks very shaky, especially in view of Ezekiel's vision of an end-time alliance of nations that will come against Israel (see Ezek 38-39). "Present-day headlines suggest many of these players [including Russia, Turkey, Iran and Libya] are coming together in ways that could eventually lead to a proactive invasion force against Israel", writes JNN's Barry Segal.²

The Syrian civil war, dreadful as it is with millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed, nevertheless acts as a temporary diversion for Israel's enemies, though of course this is no consolation for those who are suffering. But when, and if, they sort out their differences, they will doubtless turn their guns on the Jewish state.

The massacre of 50 people in a Florida gay nightclub – the deadliest mass shooting in American history, for which Islamic State have claimed responsibility – followed close on the heels of the shooting in Tel Aviv that left four dead and five wounded at the hands of two Palestinian terrorists who now automatically qualify (or their families do) for monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority as reward for their 'heroism'.

Underlying Motivation

The name of the organisation is less significant than the fact that they are all motivated by the same radical Muslim ethos. Both of the above atrocities appeared to be timed to coincide with Islam's 'holy month' of Ramadan, which makes nonsense of claims that Islam is a 'religion of peace', especially in view of comments from the BBC's head of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed.

The first Muslim to hold this position at the BBC, Professor Ahmed stated: "The Islamic State are Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic. I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Of course it has. They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong, but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine. They are Muslims. That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things."³

And if a 'holy' feast provokes heightened violence against enemies rather than any attempt at peaceful co-existence, what does that tell us about the potential for 'peace partners' in the conflict?

As Israel Today editor Aviel Schneider put it, the fact that the majority of Muslims are peaceful is an irrelevance in light of the significant numbers of radicals among them – citing, for example, Germany's Nazi era. He says that of 1.7 billion followers of Islam, the number of radicals following a militant ideology is estimated at between 15 and 25 percent – that is, between 270 and 430 million!

We must learn the lessons of history, which show how irrelevant peaceful majorities are. They moan and condemn, but they do nothing. As long as the peaceful majority fails to take action against the radical minority, they will remain irrelevant.⁴

Don't Be Fooled

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas leader who worked as an Israeli spy and is now a Christian with a great love for Israel, told a conference hosted in New York last month by the Jerusalem Post: "We can fool ourselves, but there is an Islamic problem." Mentioning terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and ISIS, he added: "All of them are killing in the name of Allah." But, he added, this is a threat that needs to be faced with courage: the world needs to unify against the Islamic belief system, just as it did against Nazism. "When the President of the free world [Obama] stands and says 'Islam is a religion of peace', he creates a climate for more terrorism."⁵

Both President Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have refused to blame radical Islam for the latest atrocity in the U.S. But American Messianic Jew Dr Mike Evans comments: "The notion that Islam is a religion of peace is a dangerous and deadly fallacy. Islam was born of the sword and war and conquest and slaughter, and it has not changed."⁶

References

1 A Shi'a Islamist militant group as well as a political party represented in the Lebanese parliament, Hezbollah – literally 'Party of Allah' – was funded by Iran primarily to harass Israel, who had occupied a strip of south Lebanon following an invasion in 1982. They subsequently waged a guerilla campaign until Israel withdrew in 2000, fought Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War, and their military strength is now such that its paramilitary wing is considered more powerful than the Lebanese Army. Hezbollah receives military training, weapons and financial support from Iran, and political support from Syria. See Hezbollah page on Wikipedia.

2 Netanyahu in Moscow, Jerusalem News Network, 10 June, 2016.

3 Saltshakers, Steve Maltz, 10 June 2016.

4 Aviel Schneider, Israel Today, June 2016.

5 'Son of Hamas' tells Jerusalem Post conference: Islam is the problemJerusalem Post conference: Islam is the problem. Jerusalem Post, 22 May 2016.

6 Friends of Zion newsletter, 14 June 2016.

Having increased its population tenfold since its re-birth in 1948, Israel must have something special to pose such a big draw. Its current 8.6 million inhabitants, squeezed into a tiny strip of land the size of Wales, is made up of over six million Jews and nearly two million Arabs.

The Land of Milk and Honey

A significant proportion of the growth has come through immigration, with Jews making aliyah (returning home) from all parts of the world, in fulfilment of ancient biblical prophecies (see questions 7 and 8 in this series).

For many it is a sacrifice, as the cost of living is high. And although the nation has rapidly developed into a high-tech world leader in many spheres of the economy, there are also poor people struggling to make ends meet, especially among Holocaust survivors.

It is a heady mix of contrasts – of tension and strife on the one hand, and of peace and happiness on the other. On my visits to Israel, I was somewhat surprised to discover that the place exudes a unique atmosphere that is truly extraordinary, wonderful and other-worldly. I suddenly understood why Jerusalem is called the "city of the Great King" (Ps 48:2) and, as I meditated on the words of Isaiah while awaiting a lift from friends, I realised what Jesus must have meant when he said that if the disciples didn't shout 'Hosanna', the very stones would praise him (Luke 19:40).

No wonder Jerusalem has been a place of God-ordained pilgrimage for thousands of years - a fact that will continue to be the case in the future (Zech 14:16-19). Surely this is why such a gigantic battle rages over the city, and over Israel itself. It's a very special piece of God's real estate.¹

What Goes Unreported

Left-wing media would have you believe Israel is an apartheid state, but in reality it's a beacon of democracy in an ocean of darkness and oppression. On the whole, Jews and Arabs live together peacefully, but against this background there are a significant minority of Islamic fundamentalists wishing to stir up trouble. Most of them do so because they were brought up to hate Jews – through Palestinian education and media output – rather than because they feel discriminated against. In fact, Arabs have equal rights with Jews, are represented in the Knesset (parliament) and also hold key posts in the police, army, judiciary and diplomatic service.

What's more, the mainstream media generally fail to report that many Palestinian Arabs and other Muslims actually prefer Israeli rule to that of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, and acknowledge that Israel, for all its faults, offers them more freedom and opportunity than can be found in most other parts of the Middle East.²

For example, when Palestinian rule of East Jerusalem seemed a distinct possibility in 2000, the Israeli Interior Ministry reported a substantial increase in citizenship applications from Arabs in that part of the city wishing to escape.³

Mahdi Majid Abdallah, a Kurdish writer, has acknowledged that "unlike the terror organizations, Israel is a democratic state, not an aggressive one, and is characterised by freedom of worship and speech and a culture of peace and enlightenment".⁴

Yet terror attacks continue on a daily basis – knifing, shooting, rock-throwing, firebombs – and much of it goes unreported, especially if no injury is caused. I witnessed one incident that could have turned nasty, when an Arab repeatedly provoked a group of Orthodox Jews who were apparently minding their own business walking down the pavement of a main thoroughfare. Thankfully, the Jewish group refused to take the bait, trying hard to ignore him.

Threats and Tensions

But despite constant tensions within and threats from without, Israel is clearly 'home' to its citizens, who nevertheless feel an element of safety because they are among their own people and very well protected by the Israeli Defence Force, who are on perpetual alert for trouble. At the same time, Israelis live in constant fear of attack from terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah, who have thousands of rockets at the ready, while Islamic State operatives roam Syria, Jordan and the Sinai desert, their flag having also made ominous appearances within the Palestinian territories. Worse still, arch-enemy Iran continues unhindered in its development of a nuclear capability.

All this, and yet there's a tangible sense of God's peace about the place (Jerusalem means City of Peace) while Israelis are also among the happiest people on earth, according to a recent survey⁵ and as evidenced by the constant round of music, dance and light festivals held throughout the year, especially in Jerusalem.

Jewish people always seem to be celebrating; perhaps because they don't know what tomorrow may bring, so they are living for the moment. It is good, in one sense, that they are not intimidated into retreating behind closed doors in the face of such hostility - but not if it means they are "casting off restraint", which is what happens when people have no revelation of God's truth (Prov 29:18).

The latter condition is reflected by the fact that a massive 200,000 people joined a Gay Pride march through Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, now known as the 'gay capital' of the Middle East. In the eyes of some Christians, this is proof that God has rejected them. But it's nonsense, of course. It is true that, as a nation, they have become as secular as the rest of us. But that in itself does not disqualify them. How many times in the ancient past did they disobey God? Yet he has never abandoned them, but has loved them with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3).

Hope for Harvest

Israel is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and many of its citizens are living in sin and outright rejection of God's commands. But still his loving arms are outstretched towards them, just as when the prodigal was reduced to feeding on pigs' swill. When the situation looked bleakest, and all hope seemed lost, he decided to return to his Father, who ran towards him and threw a party for his long-lost son, while the elder brother (the Church?) skulked in the background, self-righteously bemoaning the fact that his younger sibling had squandered his inheritance while he had slaved away ritually going through the motions of religious observance.

Today we are witnessing the beginnings of a great end-time harvest of Jews discovering Yeshua (Jesus) to be their Messiah, fulfilling Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 11:26. One powerful online video testimony of how a Jewish man became a follower of Jesus has gone viral, with the number of viewers now approaching ten million. Mottel Baleston tells of his journey to faith as part of a series produced by Messianic group One for Israel in co-operation with Chosen People Ministries.⁶

Even Orthodox Jews, some of whom are still virulently opposed to 'missionary' activity, are opening up their hearts to the gospel. Israel is a dangerous, but exciting, place to live. It's where the battle of the ages will be wound up, where an unprecedented revival on a national scale will take place, and where Jesus will return in glory!

References

1 There is a tendency among some evangelical Christians to over-spiritualise references to land and other physical places God has created, but the Bible is clear that we have both an earthly and a heavenly inheritance.

2 E.g. see Safian, A. Deconstructing "Israeli Apartheid". Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, 1 March 2012. Also Freedom House's Freedom in the World reports and Dershowitz, A. The Case for Israel. USA: Wiley, 2003.

3 Pipes, D. Hamas is Worse than Israel, Worse than Sharon. Middle East Forum, 13 April 2005 (updated 13 May 2016).

4 Ibid.

5 Israel 11^th happiest country in the world. Ynet News, 18 March 2016.

6 Jones, R. Millions Watch Testimony of Jewish Believer in Yeshua. Israel Today, 7 June 2015.

Europe Shakes as Israel Stands Firm

There were 11 million Jews living in Europe when World War II broke out in 1939. By the time the conflict ended six years later, there were just five million left. The rest had perished in Hitler's gas chambers. Europe had been a refuge for Jews since the Romans destroyed the Holy Land in 135 AD, but their history here is one of almost continual persecution.

After the Holocaust, however, Jews were at last able to find true refuge back in their own ancient land. Yet still Europe remains largely aloof and unfriendly, in spite of the fact that Jewish people have contributed so much to Western civilisation. Still European powers try to force their will on Israel, as with the recent Paris peace initiative, calling on the nations to discuss Israel's future without involvement of the parties concerned – that is, the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority.

Misguided Peace Efforts

Europe wishes to impose a peace deal on the Israelis and Palestinians, convinced by rhetoric claiming that a resolution to the issue will end global terror. Instead of addressing the raging civil war in Syria along with the carnage wreaked by Islamic State and the threat to world peace posed by Iran (the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism), the French summit chose to focus on Israel (I suspect that the divine answer to this ploy has already come in the form of the dreadful floods we have witnessed in France and Germany, followed by a serious crack in the stability of the EU caused by Britain's exit).

Israel's position remains unchanged: "Peace with the Palestinians will be achieved only through two-way, direct negotiations without preconditions", according to a Foreign Ministry statement.¹

Crucially, EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini recently stressed that they do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, whereas it is widely understood that for Israel to give up this territory would be suicidal. We would likely have ISIS flooding into Israel and the results could be far more extreme than what we have experienced since withdrawing from Gaza.²

The EU, Israel and Britain

Clearly Europe is experiencing great turbulence – in danger of being swamped by Muslim refugees, under increasing threat from Islamic terror and facing the potential for financial meltdown as economies are set on a downward spiral. And I believe that this is not unconnected with its unhelpful attitude to Israel.

For years the EU has been pumping money into the PA for no visible return. There is little evidence of Palestinians being lifted out of their poverty, or of the emergence of an infrastructure on which a future state can be built. The rotten harvest of billions of dollars in aid is seen only in the ongoing violence encouraged by Palestinian media and educational institutions. What sort of crazy investment is this? It's like pouring petrol on a barbecue. And taxpayers in Britain have been part of this murderous exercise.

I noticed that a senior Israeli analyst had expressed hopes of Britain remaining in Europe because of her modifying influence on attitudes to Israel.³ But another group encouraged expatriates to vote Leave.

Various Israeli ministers have said they would like to see Israel in the EU, but this is not likely to become reality, though the Jewish state is a member of many European transnational federations and frameworks and takes part in a number of European sporting events.⁴

As I cast my vote in the referendum, I thought of the long-held view of many Christians that the EU is the incarnation of the blasphemous Beast of Revelation that will seek to draw worship away from God to itself. We know from the various treaties marking progress toward a unified Europe – Rome, Lisbon, Maastricht – that our Creator has been completely left out of its constitution, in sharp contrast to the unwritten constitution of Great Britain based on the Magna Carta and the Coronation Oath specifically committed to democracy and the Protestant faith.

David Cameron, to his credit, is responsible for calling the Referendum which has (hopefully) got us out of this God-defying syndicate despite him personally campaigning to stay in, and is described by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as "a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Throughout his premiership the security, economic and technological cooperation between the United Kingdom and Israel has greatly expanded."⁵

Also under Mr Cameron, Britain began drafting laws outlawing the boycott effort against Israel and he has allocated an extra £12 million toward protecting Jewish communities.

Following the Referendum result, British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey said: "The relationship between Britain and Israel will not change significantly. Britain will be friends with Israel both within the EU and outside it, but Israel's relations with the EU in the future will have to be determined without Britain as a mediator."⁶

Brussels and the Palestinian Authority

The gullible nature of the godless bureaucrats in Brussels is perfectly illustrated by the standing ovation given to a speech by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in which he claimed that a group of rabbis had called on Jewish settlers in the West Bank to poison the Palestinian water supply. I note that this was the very day (23 June) the EU was shaken to its core by the British vote to withdraw from the union. Abbas subsequently retracted the accusations – which merely echoed a popular medieval anti-Semitic libel – after investigations by news organisations had concluded that it was entirely fabricated.⁷

In his speech to the European Parliament, Abbas also made the ludicrous claim that "there will be no more terrorism in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world" once the Israeli "occupation" ends.⁸ And yet he won rapturous applause! What does this say about the spiritual state of Europe?

This is all part of the PA's manipulative plan of gradually achieving statehood while side-stepping direct negotiations with Israel, a ploy which has won increasing support from EU nations. Whereas Phase 1 of the so-called 'Roadmap Peace Plan' demanded Palestinians recognise Israel's right to exist in the region, renounce terror against the Jewish nation, dismantle terrorist organisations, and end all forms of anti-Israel incitement in their media and school system - none of these requirements have been put into action.

If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down

Reflecting on the Holocaust in an article originally said to have been published in a Spanish newspaper in 2008, Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez wrote: "Europe died in Auschwitz...We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity and talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world."⁹

He said Muslims had brought religious extremism and death by blowing up trains (a reference to the Madrid bombings committed by Al Qaeda) whereas the Jews that Europe had murdered had pursued nothing but life and peace. "The Jews do not promote the brainwashing of children in military training camps, neither do they hijack plans, kill Olympic athletes [a reference to the Munich massacre of 1972], or blow themselves up in German restaurants. And there is not a single Jew who has destroyed a church. Nor have their leaders called for jihad and death to infidels [non-believers]."¹⁰

And it is worth noting that former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has urged support for Israel on the basis that "if it goes down, we all go down" (is that what's happening now?).¹¹ Aznar argues that the Jewish state is at the cutting edge in the battle between militant Islam and the West and, in a Times article, concludes: "Israel is a fundamental part of the West which is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not our fate is inextricably intertwined."¹²

Notes

1 Keinon, H. Israel slams EU backing of international peace conference. Jerusalem Post, 21 June 2016.
2 Soakell, D. Watching Over Zion report, Christian Friends of Israel, 23 June 2016.
3 Oded Eran, senior analyst at the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, told reporters: "It is preferable for Israel that Britain remain in the EU, where it is a voice of moderation in favour of Israel." (David Soakell, ibid).
4 See note 2.
5 JPost Staff, Lazaroff, T. Netanyahu hails Cameron as 'true friend of Israel' after British PM resigns. Jerusalem Post, 24 June 2016.
6 Jerusalem News Network, 26 June 2016.
7 Abbas retracts charge that rabbis called for poisoning of Palestinian wells. Jerusalem Post, 25 June 2016.
8 Lazaroff, T, Keinon, H. Netanyahu slams Abbas 'blood libel' as he flies to Rome in new diplomatic push. Jerusalem Post, 23 June 2016.
9 Gardner, C. Peace in Jerusalem. olivepresspublisher.com, p191.
10 Ibid
11 Support Israel: if it goes down, we all go down. The Times, 17 June 2010.
12 Ibid.

Embrace the hot potato – and sack the chef!

The hot potato that is Israel is even affecting what we can buy in our shops as the political, economic and institutional isolation of the country spreads across the world.

The so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a campaign to delegitimise and demonise Israel in the guise of bringing economic pressure on the country. But its real aim "is to bring down the state of Israel", according to California State University professor As'ad AbuKhalil, who added: "Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel."¹

Originating in 2009 with the so-called 'Kairos' document as a form of 'Palestinian Liberation Theology', and supported by some church denominations and even liberal Jewish groups, it has won the backing of many professors and students, and has been boosted by accusations of Israel being an 'apartheid' state. So it's based on a lie (dealt with in two parts earlier in this series) and, for that reason alone, Christians should have nothing to do with it.

It has also been shown to harm the Palestinians – on whose behalf BDS campaigners are allegedly fighting – as much, if not more than, the Israelis, as they rely heavily on Israel for jobs. When the pressure of an economic boycott is applied, employment is lost and Palestinian poverty increases.

Based on a Lie

The BDS protest has spread rapidly through university and college campuses where gullible young students have been quick to express their radicalism by taking up this ill-informed political stick with which to beat the Jewish state.

Companies initially targeted for doing business with Israel were Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions, but what Dr Theresa Newell describes as a "pernicious" movement "also affirms a fantasy that Christian peacemakers have long embraced – that the fighting will miraculously come to an end once Israel ends the occupation."²

In a paper on the subject, Dr Newell quotes John Lomperis, who ended his statement urging the United Methodist Church against adopting the boycott by saying: "The push to divest from companies doing business with Israel is fundamentally unjust, factually misinformed, morally inconsistent, and out of touch with much of our grassroots membership and our North American mission field."³

An earlier generation of students, including myself, perhaps rightly exercised their indignant fervour against genuine apartheid in South Africa. But in Israel, Arabs and Jews have equal rights, travel on the same buses, debate with each other in parliament, and both hand down sentences in the courts. A Jewish friend of mine has just had his case heard by an Arab judge, and reports that he was very fairly treated!

So it's clear that this movement is not dealing with reality, but is a thinly disguised form of anti-Semitism. The economic sanctions meted out to South Africa during the apartheid era may well have been fair, despite the hypocrisy of some nations where injustice was at least as bad. But in Israel's case, truth itself is the victim as propaganda a-plenty is spewed out by politicians and the media.

Judgment is the Lord's

Israel is not perfect, and its authorities make mistakes, but we – as followers of the Jewish Messiah – are called to pray for them (Ps 122:6), bless them (Gen 12:3) and proclaim the good news of the One who came "first for the Jew, then for the Gentile" (Rom 1:16). If we are concerned over their unrighteous behaviour, have we prayed? Have we been quick to defend them against growing hate crime? Have we taken opportunities to share the life-transforming message of Jesus with them? They need him as much as we do.

Tragically, many Christians have been quicker to pick up the mood of the world's media than the mind-renewing lifeblood of the cleansing word of God. St Paul's admonition to the Romans shouts across the centuries to this generation: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will" (Rom 12:2).

In the same chapter we are also urged not take revenge against those we perceive to have harmed us or someone else. "'It is mine to avenge; I will repay', says the Lord" (Rom 12:19). We are to bless, not curse. And remember, Jesus said that with the measure we use to judge others, so it will be measured out to us (Matt 7:2). Placard-bearers should listen, for God will judge you on the same basis that you judge Israel. Do you harbour injustice in your heart? Do you hate your enemy? The Lord will hold you to account for your shortcomings in the very areas which you perceive to be Israel's sin.

And besides, would you also ban the Bible – for it is Israel that gave us this precious treasure? They also gave us Jesus, the Saviour of the world. And are you willing to give up your mobile phone and computer, for Israel has been at the helm of the development of such new technology? Even the gramophone and record, through which the age of mass entertainment found its first global medium, was invented by German-Jewish emigrant to the USA Emil Berliner.

BDS Harms Palestinians Just as Much

Additionally, BDS harms the Palestinians as much as, if not more than, the Israelis. For example, more than 400 Palestinians lost their jobs when Israeli company Sodastream was forced by the campaign to close its factory in the West Bank and move south to the Negev.

"We don't know what we are going to do," says Mahmoud Jerdat, who has worked there for seven years. "In the Palestinian territories the economy is at rock bottom...I have four children and I need the job with this company."⁴

Israel Today editor-in-chief Aviel Schneider comments: "Ironically, the victims of the blind hatred of the BDS are the very Palestinians whom the movement has vowed to protect."⁵

The boycott also threatens the livelihoods of Arab agricultural workers in Israel. Switzerland's biggest supermarket chain has taken Israeli potatoes off its shelves in response to BDS – and specifically through the influence of Muslims living in or near the French part of the country. This is according to a vegetable producers' sales manager who said that, until recently, there had been a great demand for Israeli products due to their availability and quality.⁶

Encouraging Counter-Movement

But there is an encouraging counter-movement in progress. In the US, New Jersey has become the latest of 21 states to have agreed anti-BDS legislation, prohibiting the investment of public employee retirement funds in companies boycotting Israel.⁷

And I'll let film star Helen Mirren have the last word. Speaking at a press event in Jerusalem, the Oscar-winning British actress sang the praises of Israeli artists, adding that she firmly rejects the boycott campaign: "The artists of the country are the people you need to communicate with and make a relationship with and learn from and build upon. So I absolutely do not believe in the boycott, and here I am."⁸

Mirren, who is not Jewish, was in Israel to present the Genesis Prize (a type of Jewish Nobel Prize) to Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman. Her first trip to the nation was in 1967 when she spent time working on a kibbutz.⁹

Notes

1 Resisting the longest hatred, by Clifford D May, Washington Times, 26 May 2015. Quoted by Dr Theresa Newell, USA Chairman of the Church's Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ), in her paperWhat is BDS? CMJ USA.

2 Dr Theresa Newell, referring to the Kairos document which spawned the BDS movement in her paper BDS: How did it all begin? CMJ USA.

3 Faith & Freedom, December 2015, p13, quoted by Dr Newell in the above-mentioned paper.

4 Israel Today, May 2016.

5 Ibid

6 Dov Eilon, Israel Today, July 2016.

7 New Jersey passes legislation prohibiting anti-Israel BDS. Jerusalem Post, 28 June 2016.

8 Helen Mirren Slams BDS, Supports Israel. Bridges for Peace, 27 June 2016.

9 Ibid.

In this series we have defended Israel's right to nationhood and sought to counter unwarranted bias against her from the world. We have also argued from the Bible for Israel's ongoing place in God's covenant. In this, the final article in the series, we will look ahead in a positive way to God's purposes for Israel in the 'end times'. There are many passages in the Bible that are relevant to this topic - we will take a small selection to support our point of view.

Israel: A Prophetic Sign

The re-gathering of Israel to their ancient Land is a signpost to the end times. Luke quoted the following words of Jesus, referring to the fig tree as an end times parable:

Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. (Luke 21:29-31)

The budding of a fig tree would have had meaning to those to whom Jesus was speaking. They would have known that it referred to Israel and would have foreseen a strengthening of the nation at some future time, after the 'times of the Gentiles' (Jesus had also said that Jerusalem would be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:24)).

Therefore, one of God's central purposes in re-gathering Israel is as a sign that times are shortening for the Gospel to go out into the entire world – the central aspect of God's times of the Gentiles.

Jerusalem: Centre of Global Attention

The reclaiming of Jerusalem is part of God's promised purpose for Israel in preparation for the return of Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua HaMashiach, the King of the Jews) (see Luke 21:24, also Isaiah 2:1-3).

This sign will accompany the great shaking of the nations foretold by Jesus and the Prophets (for example, Haggai 2:21-23) – another aspect of the times of the Gentiles that will increase in severity with time.

God's Eternal Covenant with Israel

All this should be no surprise because God emphasised his unbreakable eternal purposes for Israel when the New Covenant was announced to Jeremiah:

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:33)

Jeremiah's prophecy was given in the context of judgment on Israel and exile from their land, but there was also the certainty of their return in New Covenant days (e.g. Jer 31:37). A major sign in Israel is the increase of numbers of Messianic believers, both in the Land of Israel and around the world, since 1948.

Sign of God's Faithfulness

Israel's future under the hand of God is ultimately dependent on his faithfulness. Israel's very existence in our day is a sign of God's faithfulness and reminds us that he is uncompromising - both in his promises and in his warnings.

Jesus made these things clear in relation to the entire fulfilment of end time prophecy, when he said that "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Luke 21:33).

Israel Beloved by God

Israel, then, is a sign of the times. But God is not unfeeling, simply to use them as a sign and no more – he cares about the nation that he called through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and put at the centre of his covenant purposes.

Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands... (Is 49:15-16).

God will ensure that his love for Israel will be made manifest in a remnant who will be saved in the last days. The nail-pierced hands of Jesus are a sign and seal of his great love and sure salvation. We wait for the final fulfilment of this promise for Israel above all other things we see in these troubled times in the Middle East.

From Tribulation to Glory

Though he has been rejected by many of his own people over the centuries, the truth remains that Jesus (Yeshua) died for the sins of his people, to whom he came first. As the Apostle Paul said, both judgment and glory were "first to the Jew" (Rom 2:9-10). Surely then, the greatest expectation for re-gathered Israel is fulfilment of the New Covenant promise of salvation through faith in Jesus.

We know that this will involve great tribulation. The Prophet Daniel foresaw this (Dan 12:1-3). Jesus did not compromise the prophecy of a time of tribulation coming upon the entire world, out of which salvation would come to Israel. It would be this pressure that will bring about repentance and herald the return of Jesus. This is implied by the statement:

For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'. (Matt 23:39)

This reference is from Psalm 118:26, a Messianic psalm which points to the One who brings salvation to Israel. After days of trouble (sadly these will be needed to turn people's hearts), Jesus will be accepted as the true Messiah by many in Israel. God will not give up - whatever it takes - to bring to completion the covenant promise to Abraham, fulfilled in Jesus.

The Fig Tree Budding – a Sign of Authority to Interpret Torah

The parable of the budding fig tree is in one sense a sign of Israel coming to fruitfulness - but it is also a parable relating to the authority of Israel to interpret the Torah.

An illustration of this is in John 1:48. When Jesus called Nathaniel to be a disciple he said that he saw him under a fig tree. Fig trees are broad-leaved and afforded shade for Bible students – those serious about seeking true interpretation - to meditate on Scripture or discuss what they had been taught by their rabbinical school. 'Under the fig tree' can be metaphorical for standing under the authority of the Scriptures.

Thus, the budding fig tree in Jesus' parable could also be a metaphor of Israel re-gaining authority to accurately interpret Scripture. We see this in the growing contribution of some Messianic Jews who are equipped to help Christians from the Gentile world reclaim their ancient heritage in the Torah.

One New Man

In the end times, God will be working on more than one front. God's purpose for Christians in the Gentile world is restoration to the deeper roots of their faith. The re-gathering of Israel affords an opportunity for Christians to fulfil their mandate to stand with Israel (Is 40:1-3) and, through the help of Messianic Jews in particular, to return to these deeper roots.

The vision of the One New Man (Eph 2:15, Rom 11) will be fulfilled as the end times proceed, Jew and Gentile becoming one in the faith. A picture of Christians' dependency on Jews for strengthening in these days is given in Zechariah 8:23:

In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'.

Continued Bible Study Needed

Many of the prophecies pointing to Israel's role in the end times are mystical and subject to interpretation as they are fulfilled, especially those in the Book of Revelation.

For example, we can understand the central promise of 144,000 from the Tribes of Israel (Rev 7:1-8, 14:1-5) as being a confirmation of the promise that Israel will have a special place in the end times, as an identifiable nation, with a remnant saved through faith in Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua HaMashiach). However, some aspects of what is meant by the 144,000 from all the Tribes of Israel – who they are and how God will use them - remain a mystery that will unfold in the future.

This requires us to watch and pray as the days go by. These are troubled times, but we must look beyond politics to find God's end time purposes for Israel. The troubles in the Middle East will be seen to have purpose beyond physical struggle for survival. Israel will have a prominent position in God's end time purposes, no less than heralding the return of Messiah, and being part of the final preparation of the world for that great day.

We hope that you have enjoyed our Q&A on Israel. If you would like to read further into any of the issues raised as part of the series, the following resources may be helpful.

Please note that this is by no means an exhaustive list! Please also note that whilst the following all have some relevance to the arguments put forward in this series, we do not necessarily endorse them in their entirety, as they represent a variety of viewpoints and belief systems.

Israel's Place in Scripture and Prophecy

When a Jew Rules the World. Joel Richardson, 2015, WND Books.

Has God Really Finished with Israel? Mark Dunman, 2013, New Wine Press.

Appointment in Jerusalem. Lydia and Derek Prince, revised edition 2013, Whitaker House.

Israel the Chosen. Charles Gardner, 2013, CreateSpace.

Israel: Land of God's Promise. Murray Dixon, 2012, Sovereign World Ltd. Also available on Kindle.

The Jews: Why Have Christians Hated Them? Gordon Pettie, 2010, Everlasting Books and Music Ltd.

Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith. Marvin Wilson, 1989, William B Eerdmans.

Books, CDs and DVDs by Kelvin Crombie, available through CFI.

Books by Dr Richard Booker.

Jerusalem: The Covenant City. DVD from Hatikvah Films, with Lance Lambert.

God's Land of Israel. Jacob Vince, CFI (booklet).

Grounded: The Promised Land in the New Testament. Chuck Cohen, CFI (booklet).

Israel in the Bible. Derek White, CFI (booklet).

Jerusalem Timeline. Rose Publishing, CFI (booklet).

The Jewish Connection: Israel and Jerusalem. Derek White, CFI (booklet).

The Land Where Jesus Lived. Jacob Vince, CFI (booklet).

Scriptures Proclaiming Israel's Destiny. Irish Christian Friends of Israel (booklet).

Was Jesus a Palestinian? Jacob Vince, CFI (booklet).

For more on the Hebraic roots of Christianity, see Prophecy Today UK's Study section.

Political Books Defending Israel

Secular/non-Christian (inc. Jewish)

Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas. Alan Dershowitz, 2014, Rosettabooks. Also available in hard cover.

Demonizing Israel and the Jews. Manfred Gerstenfeld, 2013, RVP Press.

Should Israel Exist? Michael Curtis, 2012, Balfour Books.

Son of Hamas. Mosab Hassan Yousef, with Ron Brackin, 2011, Tyndale Momentum.

Once an Arafat Man. Tass Saada with Dean Merrill, 2008, Tyndale House Publishers.

The Fight for Jerusalem. Dore Gold, 2007, Regnery.

The Case for Israel. Alan Dershowitz, 2003, Wiley.

Myths and Facts. Leonard J Davis, 1985, Near East Reports.

From a Christian Perspective

90 years on: Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights in The Mandate for Palestine. Roy Thurley, CFI (booklet).

A Matter of Facts. Six articles about what is happening in the Middle East today. Various authors, CFI (booklet).

Middle East Christians. Three articles examining life for Christians under Hamas, in Palestine. Smith and Pipes, CFI (booklet).

Knowing Israel's History. Various authors, CFI (booklet).

Palestine: Its Origins. Meir Abelson, CFI (booklet).

A Plain Man's Guide to the Middle East Conflict. Steve Maltz, CFI (booklet).

Setting the Records Straight. A response to the anti-Zionist DVD 'With God on Our Side'. Eliyahu Ben-Haim, CFI (booklet).

Where is the Land of Palestine? Derek White, CFI (booklet).

Reports of Kingdom Growth in Israel and the Middle East

What is God Doing in Israel? Julia Fisher, 2016, Monarch Books. See Prophecy Today's review here.

Peace in Jerusalem: but the battle is not over yet! Charles Gardner, 2015, Olive Press. See Prophecy Today's review here.

A Wind in the House of Islam. David Garrison, 2014, WIGTake Resources.

Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World? Tom Doyle with Greg Webster, 2012, Thomas Nelson Publishers.

For the Love of Zion: Christian Witness and the Restoration of Israel. Kelvin Crombie, 1991, TerraNova Publications.

The Arabs and God's Redemptive Strategy. Derek White, CFI (booklet).

God's Purposes for Israel and the Church. Geoffrey Smith, CFI (booklet).

Prayer Guides and Inspiration

For Zion's Sake. Carl Kinbar, CFI.

Praying for Israel. Various authors, CFI.

Intercession: Called to be Watchmen. Lance Lambert, CFI.

Why Pray for Israel? Ken Burnett, 2012, Sovereign World Ltd.

Father Forgive Us: A Christian Response to the Church's Heritage of Jewish Persecution. Fred Wright, 2002, Monarch/Olive Press.

Websites

The Church's Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ): http://cmj.org.uk/

Christian Friends of Israel (CFI): https://www.cfi.org.uk/

Centre for Judeo-Christian Studies (Dwight Pryor). Biblical teaching materials from a Hebraic standpoint. http://jcstudies.com/

Hatikvah Films: pro-Israel Christian multimedia ministry. http://www.hatikvah.co.uk/

HonestReporting.com: Jerusalem-based group monitoring anti-Israel bias in the international press. http://www.honestreporting.com

CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. US-based media monitoring agency promoting accurate coverage of Israel. http://www.camera.org

MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute. Monitors Arabic and Islamic media worldwide and provides English translations. Includes documentation of anti-Semitic themes. http://www.memri.org

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), specifically monitors the Palestinian media and notes its demonising of Jews. Includes focus on the rhetoric of key Palestinian leaders, as well as material used in schools. http://www.palwatch.org

FLAME (Facts and Logic About the Middle East): American organisation which seeks to educate Americans and clarify the truth about Israel by providing a pro-Israel media voice. http://www.factsandlogic.org