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Biblical understanding about Israel
Israel – The Showdown Approaches <<
By Henk Kamsteeg
What’s been happening in front of our own eyes is an unprecedented American challenge to Israel’s sovereignty and strategic needs, while at the same time trying to appease the Arab world and showing faith in some of their “moderate” leaders. The Obama administration also seemed to distance itself from the traditional U.S. pro-Israel position rooted in the religious and historic Judeo-Christian basis of America, while the great threat of Israel’s complete annihilation by Iran has been put on the back-burner.
Two-State Solution
It looks like the overall strategy of U.S. President Barack Obama is to push Israel to the brink to bring about the so-called “two-state” solution. However, the “two state “ solution is an “illusion,” unless the Arabs and all the nations in the region first recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Establishing a terror-sponsoring Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and in the heart of Jerusalem, where no Jews would be allowed to live, would seriously undermine Israel's security as well as violate the internationally guaranteed right of Jewish settlement. The whole issue is not about another Palestinian state. The Middle East problem in a nutshell is about Israel’s right to exist - the only democratic state in the Middle East.
Israel is a nation that protects the rights of all of its citizens and freedom of worship for all faiths. The Jewish people became a nation over 3,000 years ago in the Land of Israel, which includes Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") as well as the city of Jerusalem. You can pick up the Bible, read Jewish history books, then visit Israel and see physically for yourself where certain events took place. So the connection of Jews to Israel as their homeland goes back millennia.
Last June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem that he would support a Palestinian state, but it must not be armed. “If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and ironclad security provisions for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," he said.
Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, an Israeli diplomat and politician who was for many years the voice of the young nation of Israel to the international community. expressed it as follows in 1981: “Israel’s right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel’s legitimacy is not suspended in midair, awaiting acknowledgement… There is certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would consider mere recognition of its ‘right to exist’ a favor, or a negotiable concession.”
Jerusalem
Israel, as a sovereign nation, has the unconditional right to designate an undivided Jerusalem as its capital. Jerusalem was established as the capital of the Jewish nation in biblical times. The city was divided by illegal Jordanian occupation of its eastern neighborhoods in 1948, and then reunified under Israeli sovereignty in 1967. Jerusalem stands today as an open and unified city, and the idea that Jews will not have the right to determine where they want to live in Jerusalem is totally absurd. That’s why Netanyahu told the Obama administration to keep their hands of Jerusalem. To redivide the city should be firmly rejected.
Settlements
As a pre-condition for peace negotiations between Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, President Obama demanded of Israel a total freeze of construction activities, including “natural growth”, in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. He calls the settlements “illegitimate” – although Israel has never signed an agreement that has characterized any Jewish communities as “illegal.”
Obama not only told Netanyahu to stop Jewish settlements, but also commit that Israel would not attack Iran before the end of the year so that Washington’s plans to dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program would not be disrupted. Obama called it an “historic opportunity” to make peace with the Palestinians. That way Obama linked the issue of the Iranian nuclear crisis to the birth of a new Palestinian state. It sounded like a stern warning that if Israel wants US support, Israel has to give up more land.
Obama should better remember Netanyahu’s words after giving his Cairo speech, when he linked the Arab claim on the so-called “occupied territories” with the land grab by the great powers to salve the collective conscience of the West after the Holocaust. “On the contrary,” Netanyahu remarked, “Israel’s right to its homeland rests on the longstanding historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.”
As far as the so-called “settlements” are concerned, Israel has as much right to build settlements in Judea and Samaria, as Poland has to build in areas that once held ethnic Germans. “The Arabs launched a series of wars against Israel and lost. Aggressors who lose a war also lose territory. In any peace settlement, Jews would have as much right to live in the “West Bank” as Arabs have to live inside Israel,” says Steven Plaut, a columnist for the Jewish Press.
After Obama’s recent summit sessions in New York with both Netanyahu and Abbas, he changed his diplomatic tactics. He seemed to get very impatient with all the hangups on “settlement” issues and other related matters, and decided to stop arguing about pre-conditions. As Obama himself put it, “The time for talking about starting negotiations is past.” A tough predicament for Abbas, as Hamas won’t be happy with this changed course.
No Place for Israel
In his article Israel Struggles, British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, “If there were justice in the world, Israel would be seen as a role model among the nations. Not lightly does the Torah give the name Israel to our people, for it means “you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed. To be a Jew, to be a member of the people Israel, has always been a struggle, sometimes with God, sometimes with our fellow human beings. But that is our destiny, our call, our task…
“In the 1930s our enemies said: Jews to Palestine. Now they say: Jews out of Palestine. They don’t want us to be here. They don’t want us to be there. They don’t want us to be. Why?
“Why, after ten years of negotiation, in which the Palestinians were offered their own state in all of Gaza, 97% of the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem, is Israel still seen as the sole obstacle to peace? Why, in a world in which there are 57 Islamic states and something like 100 Christian ones, is the desire of the Jewish people to have just one state of its own – God forbid – racist, exclusionary, retrograde? Why, when Israel has a quarter of one percent of the landmass of the Arab world, is it Goliath against David? Why, alone among the almost 200 nations that comprise the United Nations, is Israel the only one whose very right to be is still called into question?”
“Why is it that so many people in the world want to see Israel dismantled and reduced to an area along its coastline that is only 9 miles wide in places? That narrow strip of land is home to 70% of Israel's population. Carving a Palestinian state out of Israel's heartland would make these Israelis totally vulnerable to attack from above, if the bordering highlands of Judea and Samaria are relinquished to the Palestinians. All too often, in defense of Israel against defamation, Israel stands alone; but no people should be left to face hatred alone. As Martin Luther King said, “In the end we will remember, not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Zionism – A Deadly Cancer
During the recent annual Muslim festival Eid al-Fitr, both Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the huge crowds in Tehran. Khameinei said, “There is a deadly cancer of Zionism gnawing into the lives of the Islamic nations.” The all-powerful cleric added that the "deadly cancer was spreading through the invading hands of the occupiers and arrogant powers.”
The pro-Palestinian Quds Day rally in Tehran was marred by massive protests against Ahmadinejad, launched by supporters of those who stood against him in June presidential elections and who claim his re-election was rigged. His anti-Israel comments – just days ahead of his planned visit to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York – enraged the European Union, including key ally Moscow. The EU called on the leaders of Iran to contribute constructively to peace and security in the Middle East. Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. have condemned Ahmadinejad’s comments.
UN General Assembly
Two bizarre happenings at the opening session of the UN General Assembly in New York were the speeches by Lybia’s dictator Gaddafi and Iran’s notorious leader Ahmadinejad.
While ripping up a copy of the UN Charter, Gadaffi called the United Nations a “terrorism council.” He said a new country should be created to replace Israel which he renamed “Isratine.” It would encompass all Arabs and Jews living in the land today, along with several million Palestinian refugees. How crazy can you get…
Of course Ahmadinejad launched into his usual anti-Western and anti-Semitic tirades and absurd Holocaust denials. Several delegations walked out on his speech. When the Iranian leader was asked to come to the podium, the American and Canadian delegations left the hall. The hall was then emptied further as delegations from France, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy and New Zealand rose and left. Israel called for a boycott of the speech altogether and was not present at the time when Ahmadinejad accused the Jewish state of “inhuman” policies in Palestine.
The Iranian leader’s comments are yet another giveaway of his true intentions and they provided again clear evidence that Ahmadinejad and his government are currently not a serious partner for diplomatic talks with the West.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly's annual debate, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu took aim at Ahmadinejad and the "terrorist" Iranian regime, deploring Ahmadinejad's "anti-Semitic rants" and said it was a disgraceful "mockery of the charter of the United Nations. He said people who listened to the Iranian leader gave "legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of 6 million Jews, while promising to wipe out the state of Israel, the state of the Jews. Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come and to those who left in protest, I commend you.”
“You stood up for moral clarity, and you brought honor to your countries,” said Netanyahu. "But to those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere, have you no shame? Have you no decency?"
Netanyahu showed a copy of minutes of senior Nazi officials when they met to discuss how to carry out the extermination of Jewry and noted plans to construct concentration camps. Are such plans lies? And are the tattoos branded on the arms of Auschwitz survivors lies as well?”
Because They Hate
Arab Christian Brigitte Gabriel, a victim and survivor of radical Islam during the Lebanese Civil War, gives dire warning of what is to come if the democratic and Western world does not take responsible action to protect its peoples and societies. In her compelling and captivating book Because They Hate she says, “Even after 9/11, there are those who say that we must ‘engage’ our terrorist enemies, that we must ‘address their grievances’. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our democratic process. Islamic religious authorities and terrorist leaders repeatedly state that they will destroy the United States and Western civilization. Unless we take them at their word, they will succeed.
“Some Americans still believe that the terror war against Israel and the terror war against the United States are somehow unrelated. Others believe that radical Islam is waging a terrorist war against the U.S. because of America’s support for Israel. Americans who subscribe to either of these theories need to remember that through Islamo-fascist eyes, Israel is merely ‘the Little Satan’. The United States is ‘the Great Satan’. Even if Israel were to disappear, the destruction of America and the subjugation of non-Muslim civilization would continue to be the strategic objective of radical Islam.”
The fact of the matter is: the more Israel will offer, the more the opposing forces will ask for. And if they don’t get it, Israel will be blamed for the breakdown in talks and the violence that takes place. The mainstream media will run with it, because these days key battles are fought on editorial pages and television screens, and on the internet.
It’s not about creating a state alongside Israel; it’s about creating a state in place of Israel. As soon as the “Palestinians” give up their hope of destroying the Jewish state, then there could be peace.
Refugee Crisis
“They’ve completely fabricated a refugee crisis,” said Jerusalem-based American journalist and author Aaron Klein in a recent interview. “What I’m talking about is that the Palestinians demand something called the Right of Return. So-called Palestinian refugees should be able to resettle in Israel and destroy it by population genocide because there would be more Arabs than Jews.
The United Nations first created that crisis and has been maintaining it almost since the founding of Israel. Now what I’m talking about is that the United Nations, until it came to the Palestinians – the whole point of United Nations refugee agencies was to find new homes for displaced people. Yet when it came to the Palestinians, the UN completely redefined what a refugee is and also they’ve rejected every offer to resettle the Palestinians refugees somewhere else. Right now, every Palestinian leader demands the return for millions of foreign Arabs who are called Palestinians.”
Klein says, “Buried beneath all the news headlines and popular perceptions about the Israeli/Arab perpetual conflict, a life-and-death struggle is taking place right now, before our own eyes, in the heart of Zion. If Israel is victorious, democracies everywhere will win. If it loses, the Western world will be next to fall.”
Silent Majority
We are told again and again that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this assertion may be true, it is irrelevant. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this time in history. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque, zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals, behead and murder. It is the fanatics who teach their young ones to kill and to become suicide bombers.
Sounds familiar? Very few people were true Nazis, but more enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more kept silent. It ended up in a Holocaust.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace-loving’?
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority was irrelevant.
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet we often miss the most basic of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been irrelevant by their silence. If they don’t speak up, they will wake up one morning and find that the fanatics own them and the end of their world will have begun. The peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. By the way, that goes for all of us.
Nuclear Iran
While protesters gathered in the thousands carrying posters at the “Stand for Freedom in Iran” rally against the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad near the United Nations headquarters in New York, President Obama chaired a United Nations Security Council session on halting the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world.
As if programmed ahead of time, Iran reported the existence of a second, previously unknown, uranium enrichment facility. It shocked the leaders of the world. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, “Iran is taking the international community on a dangerous path. Everything must be put on the table now. We cannot let the Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running.” Both Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that if Iran does not come into compliance by December, it risks the imposition of stringent international sanctions.
Ahmadinejad said in an interview that he is willing to have Iran’s nuclear experts meet with scientists from the U.S. and other world powers as a confidence-building measure. He insisted that Iran is using nuclear technology only for energy and medical purposes and has no interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran tested a missile-launching system and several types of short-and medium-range missiles. The latest test followed Ahmadinejad's disclosure that Iran was building a second uranium enrichment facility. In May, Iran said it tested a surface-to-surface missile that is capable of reaching parts of Europe. The United States and Israel believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Iran has denied the allegation.
Schmoozing with Terrorists
So what do we make of this latest development?
Well, just consider that Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism today. They’re allied with Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. So Iran doesn’t even need to take a missile from its own territory and shoot it at Israel or Europe for that matter. They can just give nuclear materials to a terrorist organization that could detonate it in Jerusalem, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Washington, Sydney…
“There wouldn’t be anything stopping them should they get the nuclear umbrella. Also, if Iran gets nukes, it then gives a nuclear umbrella to all of Iran’s allies like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. So Iran having a nuke would be a game changer for the world. It would change the entire strategic balance of the Middle East,” says Aaron Klein, author of the books “Schmoozing With Terrorists” and “The Late Great State of Israel”.
Now U.S. President Barack Obama comes up with his own perspective on nuclear weapons:
"I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal."
As a policy statement, this means that President Obama is now not just pointing the finger at Iranian nuclear weapons, but at “any nation”, including Israel.
“Obama’s emphasis on a commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, something which Israel has refused to agree, since that means opening all of its facilities to inspection - including its top secret plant in Dimona - is a direct threat to Israel's security,” said Moshe Dann, a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. Dann also made the comment that Obama’s statement undercuts the reasons for America's attack in Iraq, assents to nuclear proliferation and precludes any action against Iran. It also turns the focus on Israel.
Obama has put Israel in a very difficult position, because he knows that if Israel refuses to agree to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel will be isolated and blamed for lack of progress on Iran. If it agrees, Israel will lose a vital strategic deterrent.
Could it be that Barack Obama’s real agenda is not just about “settlements” and a “two-state” solution, but about Israel’s nuclear capability? Whatever is the case, Obama's words are an ominous warning of what he is prepared to do in order to strip Israel of its military advantage. Along with the loss of control over Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights, territories that are vital for Israel's security and access to water reserves, faced with Arab terrorist militias backed by Arab armies, Israel will be completely vulnerable.