During this past week several significant events have taken place regarding Israel. As the war begun by Hamas passes 600 days, Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed “Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas' Gaza chief and the younger brother of the Palestinian militant group's deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack, Yahya Sinwar, had been killed,” according to Arutz Sheva. Israel also took control of food distribution in Gaza, further undermining Hama’s grip on power.

Photo Credit: Katz and Smotrich on a tour of Judea and Samaria, photo: Elad Malka, Ministry of Defense

Perhaps the most significant event was the vote taking by the Israeli Cabinet and announced by Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday and reported by Arutz Sheva:

“I came here today to reconnect with my national and personal roots. I served in Sanur as a paratrooper recruit and fought against the uprooting of the community during the Disengagement Plan. I promised then that we would return — and today, we are returning with the decision to reestablish this community, along with 21 other new communities in Judea and Samaria,” Katz stated. “This is a historic moment for settlement in Judea and Samaria, strengthening it as Israel’s defensive wall and bolstering security in the region.”

He added, “This is a crushing response to the terror organizations that seek to weaken our hold on this land — and it is also a clear message to [French President Emmanuel] Macron and his associates: they may recognize a Palestinian state on paper, but we are building the Jewish-Israeli state on the ground. That paper will be cast into the dustbin of history, while the State of Israel will flourish and thrive.”

It was in an interview with the France 5 channel on April 9, that Macron said “we must move toward recognition” of a Palestinian state, warning that he could do so at the June summit in New York hosted with Saudi Arabia.

With Katz was Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan, whose family was evicted from Sa-Nur in 2005, who stated (according to JNS)

“I am excited to be here on a professional tour to plan, in an organized manner, how to implement the Cabinet decision, together with the minister of defense and at all levels, and to return here,” said Dagan.

“We’re here to come home, to rebuild the home of my family and myself. This community, which will be one of the Samaria Regional Council’s villages, in the heart of the inheritance of the tribe of Menashe, and above all, to strengthen and restore security to the State of Israel.”

“Because always, since the dawn of Zionism—and we saw it here in northern Samaria most clearly—wherever there is settlement, there is security; wherever there is no settlement, there is terror,” he charged.

His comment about this being the inheritance of Menashe or Manasseh is reference back to the division of the land under Joshua some 3430 years ago. Israel is the “indigenous people’ of the land and is returning to re-inherit what God gave them so many years ago. This is God’s doing, his work, and they are living out his prophecies.

JNS reported of the recent Cabinet meeting:

Israel’s Security Cabinet recently approved 22 new Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria, including two in northern Samaria that were uprooted by Israeli forces as part of the 2005 Gaza disengagement.

“We made a historic decision for the settlement: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel—the State of Israel’s defensive shield,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday.

“With God’s help, we have returned Israel to a path of building, Zionism and vision. Settlement in our ancestral homeland is the protective wall of the State of Israel—and today, we took a major step in fortifying it,” continued Smotrich, who led the initiative in the Security Cabinet.

In the meantime, several European nations have been threatening unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Arutz Sheva reported:

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer reportedly told France, the United Kingdom and others that the move could lead Israel to annex Area C of Judea and Samaria and legalize outposts.

“Unilateral moves against Israel will be met with unilateral moves by Israel,” Sa’ar told his counterparts, the Israel Hayom daily reported.

The failed 1995 Oslo Accords divided Judea and Samaria into three administrative districts. Areas A and B are under the accords were designed to be Judenrein or “Jew Free” and under limited control of the Palestinian Authority. Area C is approximately 60% Judea and Samaria, and is where approximately 700,000 Israeli’s live today.

Division of Judea and Samaria according to the failed Oslo Accords.

In the Israeli cabinet decision on Sunday, Israel will now make all decisions about land, and any Palestinian efforts to recognise land using its own land registry would be legally void.

According to Israel Hayom,

“…until now the Israeli authorities have worked with the method of “all territory is forbidden – except for what is permitted.” In other words, if an area is declared state land, it is Israeli, but if not, the working assumption is that it is Palestinian territory. Those who took advantage of this, among others, were the European Union and left-wing organizations that promoted the construction of schools and buildings in Area C, claiming that it was Palestinian territory.

The cabinet decision passed today reverses the situation and states that “all territory is permitted – except for what is prohibited.” In other words, territory will still have to go through a process to become state land, but the Palestinians will not be able to build and claim that it is their territory.

This move has had the liberal NGO’s hopping mad. The Middle East Eye reported:

Yesh Din, an Israeli organisation that campaigns for human rights in occupied Palestine, told MEE that the cabinet decision was “a dangerous step towards realising the messianic vision of the annexationist government and constitutes a blatant violation of international law”. 

It is interesting to see the intended slanderous reference to a “messianic vision” for annexation. It is indeed a Biblical move as the Bible clearly states:

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:1–2)

God clearly states that the area of Judea will be “regathered” from captivity. There are 700,000 Israeli’s living there now, and this move will increase that number.

The faithless government of Israel forcefully evacuated many of these communities as part of Sharon’s 2003 disengagement plan which was forcefully enacted by August 2005. This included the destruction of the Gush Katif communities in the Gaza Strip, and the dismantling of settlements in Judea and Samaria. The “land for peace” deal was completely flawed, and led to the Hamas terror takeover in Gaza, and eventually the October 7^th massacre that began this last war.

God has clearly outlined his plan, and this latest announcement is, no doubt, the work of the angels in bringing it to pass:

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:27–28)

Antisemitism is flourishing world-wide, as was proved last week with the murder of two Jewish diplomats in Washington.  Instead of condemning the murder of Yaron Lichinsky and Sarah Milgrim, according to the Jerusalem Post, “Pro-Palestine, Marxist groups start 'Free Elias Rodriguez' campaign, laud 'legitimate act'”   

The campaign is co-signed by 28 other pro-Palestine or Marxist groups. The campaign statement calls Elias Rodriguez’s murder of the two embassy workers on May 21 “a legitimate act of resistance against the zionist state and its genocidal campaign in Gaza.” “The time has now come for real consequences; they have left no other option,” it added.

The statement then launched into a multi-paragraph diatribe about Zionist supremacy and imperialism before adding that “in this light, the operation conducted by Elias Rodriguez against Israel’s diplomatic functionaries in Washington DC – people actively engaged in facilitating this comprehensive violence across the globe by creating the diplomatic space to continue and deepen it – was, by his own account, a declaration of ENOUGH!”

“Such counter-violence is legitimate, it is justice.”

Truly the time has come for all Jews to return to the land of Israel, even those living seemingly comfortably in America. The words of the prophet Jeremiah are ringing true:

“Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” (Jeremiah 16:16)

Israel, although the future target of world aggression will be the place where all God’s people will return. It is a messianic vision, for the Lord Jesus Christ is destined to be king over the nation of Israel, in the land of Israel, for ever, as Gabriel told Mary years ago:

“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:32–33)

We await this time and watch with great interest the Bible in the News.

For the Bible in the News, this has been Jonathan Bowen joining you.