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President Bush Visits Israel
Is Israel a Foreign Occupier in the West Bank?
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Friday, January 11, 2008
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www.bibleinthenews.com Audio & Print versions
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"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent."
An end to the occupation? Occupation in the sense Bush is using the word is a term meaning to control a territory by foreign military forces and therefore President Bush is saying that Israel is a foreign military force. Is that really so? To say that Jews are foreigners in the West Bank is simply ridiculous. The first Jewish settlements created in the West Bank, after the June 1967 war were re-settlements. The Gush Etzion group of settlements south of Jerusalem, were built on the site of the pre 1948 Jewish settlements. Jews lived in Hebron for hundreds of years until 1929, when 67 were massacred, others wounded and the rest expelled by the British. Post 1967, the Jews returned to Hebron, they were not foreigners.Under the word "Palestine" in "Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language" published in 1957 it states: "Palestine, region of sw Asia, known as the Holy Land, lies between Mediterranean Sea, Syria and Arabian Desert; about 270 miles long and 100 miles wide... War between Israel and neighboring Arab states resulted in the division of Palestine by military truce in 1949, roughly along the boundaries recommended by the U.N. Israel held the north (incl. Galilee), most of the coastal region, and the Negev desert in the south; eastern central Palestine was occupied by Trans-Jordan; Jerusalem was split between the 2 armies." Going back to a dictionary from 1957 gives us a little clarity we wouldn't get today. Palestine is about 100 miles wide. Israel at it's widest point is 71 miles wide. About 60 miles from Tel Aviv and your in Amman, Jordan. 100 miles from Tel Aviv and you are getting close to northern Saudi Arabia. From the dimensions given we understand the dictionary included the majority of Jordan in its definition of Palestine. The British Mandate of Palestine included Israel and Jordan until 1922 when Transjordan was created. In other words Jordan is a Palestinian State. Now President Bush wants to establish another one. There is no historical Palestinian State besides the ancient nation of Israel. The territory was never an independent state, but was always ruled by foreigners including the Romans, Saracens, Christian Crusaders, Turks and the British.
A fact many people do not realize, is that for every Arab refugee, from the newly born state of Israel, there was a Jewish refugee forced from his home and expelled from an Arab country. While the new Jewish state absorbed these refugees, the Arab countries did not absorb Arab refugees from Israel. They left them in camps to fester and use as a political tool against the Jewish State. Today the Vatican who has always objected to a Jewish state in Israel for religious reasons, has championed the Palestinian cause and together with Europe are using them as pawns in their war against Israel. This subject is expanded in the current Bible Magazine, available to order at biblemagazine.com.
The Palestinians themselves have admitted that the Palestinian nationality is fictitious. Zuheir Muhsin, late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council stated in March 1977 in the Dutch daily Trouw that: "Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel..."
Bush visited Ramallah, located in the territory of the ancient tribe of Benjamin, which is right next to Bethel. It was in Bethel that Jacob had a dream, he saw a ladder reaching into heaven, "And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Later Jacob's name was changed to Israel. The land which Bush dreams of establishing an Arab state in, was promised by God to Israel.
President Bush visited the birthplace of Jesus Christ--at least the place Constantine's mother decided he was born. In any case Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the West Bank. Jesus is Jewish. Jesus is an Israelite. George Bush's dream of a Palestinian state involves making the West Bank Jew free, or Judenrien as the German's would say. He is pursuing a policy that would make the birthplace of the Jewish Messiah Jew free. The burial site of Rachel near Bethlehem, Jew free. The burial site of the Patriarchs Abraham, Issac and Jacob in Hebron, where King David reigned, Jew free. The burial site of Joseph in Shechem, Jew free. The site of the ancient tabernacle at Shilo, Jew free. The city of David south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Jew free. And the Temple Mount itself, Jew free.
In Psalm 102:13-16 the Psalmist, moved by the Holy Spirit prophecies that the Almighty would "...arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." Yahweh is in the process of building up Zion in our time, President Bush is pursing a policy to tear it down.
In Jeremiah 33:10-16 the prophet Jeremiah writes: "Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them , saith the LORD. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness." Notice: in the cities of the mountains, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah the will be Jewish settlements! We see prophecy fulfilled before our eyes. However President Bush cannot see, his eyes are blinded as he belongs to the Methodist Church who knows nothing of the Gospel of the Kingdom--the Hope of Israel.
It was in the West Bank that the entire scroll of Isaiah the prophet was discovered in 1947, in fact the vast majority of the dead sea scrolls were found in the West Bank. Those scrolls were written in Hebrew, the language of the ancient Jewish occupants of the land. Chaim Wiseman read from the prophet Isaiah before the whole of the United Nations assembly in 1947, they all heard the words from Isaiah 11:11-12. Chaim read: "The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnants of his people. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcast of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." The Lord shall set his hand again the second time. The first time was when the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian captivity back to the land of Israel. Today we are witnessing the second regathering. This is the last regathering of the Jewish people to their land that culminates in the establishment of God's kingdom upon earth. The nations are without excuse, they can see the hand of God at work bringing His people from the four corners of the earth back to His land and they fight against it. At the end of the story, we really only need to know these simple facts: The land of Israel is God's; God is bringing his people the Jews, back to His land; no one will be able to stop this process, even if the armies of all nations gather together against Jerusalem to battle; anyone who tries will be found to fight against God and will bring ruin upon themselves.
Bush may have his plans, but as we have seen he is going against the God of Israel. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." (Psalm 2)
This has been David Billington with you for the January 10, 2008 edition of the Bible in the News. Come back next week God Willing to www.bibleinthenews.com.
Printed: Friday, January 11, 2008
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