Jerusalem Divided / January 2010

Jerusalem Divided

Contents

• Jerusalem Divided

The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

Zechariah 12:1-3

For the past 62 years there has been conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Israel's neighbors. This conflict has at times erupted into open warfare beginning with Israel's war of independence, which the Palestinians call “the catastrophe.” Since then there has been a 1956 war, a 1967 war, the Yom Kippur War, and the Lebanese War with the PLO being evicted from Lebanon. We have also seen multiple attempts to bring about peace. Israel withdrew from the Sinai to have peace with Egypt, a formal peace agreement was reached with Jordan, but Syria and the Palestinians have not agreed to any peace. Now Iran is rattling its sabers threatening to attack Israel through missiles and with the help of its surrogates Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza. Israel has had to deal with two intifadas (uprisings) with the Palestinians and a minor war of sorts with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Recently, Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza to stop the daily rocket launches into Israel, this despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza forcing Israelis from that region to abandon their homes.

There have been various objectives in these past conflicts. First and foremost was Israel’s right to live and have a state to live in. The second objective has been the “heart” of the first. That objective is Jerusalem.

The conflict in the Middle East has always been about Jerusalem. This was the focus in the war of independence in 1947 in which Ben-Gurion insisted that a state of Israel without Jerusalem was no state at all.

“No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people.”

- David Ben-Gurion, 1947

Jerusalem has always been the capital of Israel in the minds of the Israelis. Ben-Gurion and other Israeli leaders concluded this based on their faith with the words “Next year in Jerusalem” from the Passover. They spoke of these aspirations when they thought of returning to the Holy Land. Elhanan Leib Lewinsky, a writer and Zionist leader wrote, “Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is as a body without a soul.” He died before the Balfour Declaration in 1917 called for a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. The UN decree in 1947 called for the British to leave the Middle East leaving room for several nations to be formed, including Israel. Israel acted on this, declaring itself a sovereign state one day after the British left. All of the Arab states objected and declared war on Israel; they did not agree to the UN decision. The first thing the Arabs did was besiege Jerusalem and all of the Jews living there.

Israel not only defended itself, but it built a new road because Jerusalem was cut off. Despite Israeli forces relieving the siege of Jerusalem, the Arabs still controlled the east side of the city. Ben-Gurion continued to stress the importance of Jerusalem at the conclusion of the fighting in 1949.

“We regard it as our duty to declare that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of the State of Israel, as it is an inseparable part of the history of Israel, of the faith of Israel.”

- David Ben-Gurion, Knesset speech, December 1949

In those days, no one went to Jerusalem to visit the Old City. There was no Kotel (Wailing Wall) - it was an Arab dump. When Israel finally liberated all of Jerusalem in the war of 1967, the Palestine Liberation Organization was formed by Yasser Arafat in Egypt. It too had the same objective—Jerusalem—and Arafat had a plan on how to get back control of Jerusalem.

“We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion… We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.”

- Yasser Arafat

In 1993 the terrorist Yasser Arafat met with President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. They shook hands and signed the initial Middle East Peace Agreement recognizing one another and the right to exist as neighbors; however, the issue of Jerusalem was not in that agreement. Like the big pink elephant in the living room, no one dared to speak of Jerusalem or try to negotiate for it. The idea was to “build confidence” with one another, agreeing to inconsequential things before trying to deal with the elephant. It didn’t work. The question of Jerusalem quickly became the focus of the Middle East Peace agreement, but Israel's position was clear.

“Jerusalem is united, will never be divided again.”

-Yitzhak Rabin

Rabin was assassinated in 1995 and Shimon Peres became the Prime Minister. The Palestinians answered Israel's determined declaration by setting off the first terrorist suicide bombs in buses on the streets of Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu followed Peres as Prime Minister when Peres fell out of favor. Over the objections of the US State Department and President Clinton, Netanyahu issued a clear and unmistakable negotiating position for the Middle East.

“First of all, Arafat is wrong. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, will never be divided, and will remain the capital of the State of Israel, the capital of the Jewish people, forever and ever.”

- Benjamin Netanyahu

The words of the prophet Zechariah told us about what would be happening in the Middle East Peace agreement of today. Jerusalem has become a heavy stone.

The impasse over Jerusalem is the crux of the negotiations in the Middle East. It is the pink elephant in the living room of the world involved with the Middle East. No one seems to have had a solution until just last month (December 2009).

The new EU President put forth a resolution within the European Union that Jerusalem should be divided and become the capital of Israel and yet to be part of a Palestinian state. Everyone seems to like the idea. The United States did not object, the Palestinians heralded it as the first step toward statehood, but as you can imagine, Israel did not agree.

Before we go further, let me elaborate a bit on what dividing Jerusalem means. Those in favor of dividing the city are saying that the borders of Israel should go back to the 1967 borders, when Jordan held the city. This means that the Old City (all of it) would be given to the Palestinians, including many Jewish communities built in the last 49 years. Oh, by the way, that means that any Jews living there would have to leave as well. Palestinians (Arabs) can live anywhere in Israel, but Jews cannot live or own land in Palestinian areas.

The farcicality of this does not seem to matter to other nations anymore, including the United States. It appears that Israel is going to be alone on this point and all nations will soon come against Jerusalem. The words of the prophet have now become literal:

And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it [Jerusalem].

Zechariah 12:3

Why has Jerusalem become the very point of the conflict in the Middle East? Why is it so important to the Jews, and why do the Palestinians insist that they have it and not the Jews?

When I step back for a bigger view of this question I remember something from my youth. Have you ever seen children argue over the possession of a particular toy? It begins first with a child choosing the toy. He loves the toy and begins playing with it. The second child resents that the first has the toy and is enjoying it. Rather than finding another toy or waiting his turn, the second attempts to take the toy away from the first. Part of his motivation is to prevent the first from enjoying it. Does this enable the second to play with the toy? Of course not, but that isn’t the objective. The objective is to deprive the first from having it in the hope of getting it in the future.

The hope of the Palestinians for Jerusalem is based on keeping Israel from having Jerusalem.

I do not believe that the Palestinians are an indigenous people to the land of Israel with Jerusalem as their capital. The land of Israel was a barren wasteland under Turkish rule until the British took it over in World War I. In World War II, the Arabs sided with the Nazis, but the British were able to fend off the Germans in North Africa and control the Middle East with France. That is what precipitated the UN decree of 1947 and Israel’s declared statehood in 1948. My point is direct. There never was a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a people indigenous to that “Palestinian nation”. Even their national name “Palestinians” is a theft of Roman history. Even the Jews called the land Palestine prior to 1948 in reference to the Roman name. This group of Arabs was actually evicted from Jordan and have invented a heritage that is not theirs. The same is not said of the Jews. Arafat, as mentioned above, was an Egyptian. There was no interest in the land until Jews started improving the “wasteland” into farmland, introducing irrigation and Jews started evacuating Europe with the idea of rebuilding a homeland. The Biblical record and world history confirms the Jewish homeland and Jerusalem as their capital.

So, why do the western nations play this game of trying to help the Palestinians make a claim for their homeland? Why do they believe that Israel must share their homeland and capital with another people who have sworn the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people? Why is Jerusalem the very focus of this madness?

Truly the prophet has said correctly — to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around. Anyone who drinks of this cup loses their mind. They are like drunk and poisoned at the same time. The poison to the western nations is thinking that they can appease the Palestinians and the Arabs. They do not understand Palestinian hatred and their love of bloodshed. They think that giving them what they want will be satisfactory.

Why is Jerusalem so important? For the Palestinians, it is one step closer to getting rid of the Jews.

For those of you who think my opinion of the Palestinians is too sharp, consider what the Scriptures says about them.

(A Song, a Psalm of Asaph.) O God, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have become a help to the children of Lot. Selah.

Psalms 83:1-8

This is an excellent description of the Palestinians today and their present goals. In particular you should note that the tents of Edom are a reference to Esau who lives in Mount Seir. Ezekiel the prophet speaks of the Palestinians of today just as the Psalmist did.

Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say to it, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and a waste. I will lay waste your cities, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Because you have had everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end, therefore, as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. And I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it the one who passes through and returns. And I will fill its mountains with its slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain by the sword will fall. I will make you an everlasting desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 35:2-8

According to Ezekiel, the descendants of Esau (the Palestinians) have an everlasting enmity toward Israel and they love to hate and pursue bloodshed. As a result, God will have bloodshed pursue them.

This is a fact. More Palestinians have been slain at the hand of Palestinians than have been slain by Israelis in the Middle East. The Palestinians love violence and see it as their number one tactic in dealing with Israel. It is referred to as terrorism (the tactic of using violence) today by world leaders. It is intended to disrupt normal activities and instill fear. Do you remember what Arafat said he was going to do with Israel? We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare… Terrorism is a warfare tactic, the choice of weapons by the Palestinians.

Ezekiel goes on to describe the last day purposes of the Palestinians (the very negotiations of today). You may have heard of it as the two-state solution for the Middle East (the dividing of Jerusalem).

Because you have said, “These two nations and these two lands will be mine [the Palestinians], and we will possess them, although the Lord was there, therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your envy which you showed because of your hatred against them [the Jews]; so I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all your revilings which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel saying, ‘They are laid desolate; they are given to us for food.’ And you have spoken arrogantly against Me and have multiplied your words against Me; I have heard.” Thus says the Lord God, “As all the earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation. As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be a desolation, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 35:10-15

Ezekiel actually spoke of a time when the descendants of Esau (the Palestinians) would be living in the mountains of Israel (Samaria and Judea) and they would boast against the God of Israel.

And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, “O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.” Thus says the Lord God, “Because the enemy has spoken against you, ‘Aha!’ and, 'The everlasting heights have become our possession, therefore, prophesy and say, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘For good cause they have made you desolate and crushed you from every side, that you should become a possession of the rest of the nations, and you have been taken up in the talk and the whispering of the people. Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the forsaken cities, which have become a prey and a derision to the rest of the nations which are round about, therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey.' Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, 'Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My wrath because you have endured the insults of the nations. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I have sworn that surely the nations which are around you will themselves endure their insults.’”

Ezekiel 36:1-7

The Palestinians believe that the everlasting heights have become their possession. They claim the mountains of Samaria and Judea are theirs, but they want more. The other nations have now agreed with them to take more as well; therefore, God says He will cause them to become desolate (have nothing) and their insults will befall the other nations. The insults of the nations against Israel will come back on the nations. There is a day coming as Ezekiel describes that the Palestinians, along with Israel’s surrounding enemies, will be slaughtered by the God of Israel.

Why is God so interested in Jerusalem and so opposed to the idea of it being divided? The answer is found again in the Scriptures.

Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:2-3

God has plans for Jerusalem and the mountain of the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. He has no intention for it to be called Palestinian territory. It belongs to the House of Jacob, the brother of Esau. God intends that the teaching of the Torah shall go forth from Jerusalem, not the teaching of the Koran and a false god.

Regardless of what any politician wants to believe, the conflict of the Middle East is an ancient conflict, dating back to Jacob and Esau. What started as an argument over a birthright and Esau rejecting the God of Abraham has come down to the Palestinians saying in essence that Jacob stole their birthright—Israel has stolen their land. Today, the Palestinians are a Muslim people, worshiping a false god; similarly Esau agitated his parents by marrying Canaanite women and essentially turning his back on the God of Israel. Soon, the whole world will know the God of Israel – the Creator of heaven and earth.

For those of us who have looked to the end-time prophecies and tried to assess how close we are to the end, the most crucial element is now in place—everyone now knows that there is an elephant in the living room.

Give me a moment here with this mind picture. How would you get an elephant out of a living room? In my mind's eye, the living room is going to be destroyed.

The conflict over Jerusalem will lead to a regional war and consequences for the entire world. Jerusalem truly is the center of the world as the Scriptures say.

Since Lion and Lamb Ministries began its public efforts in 1995, we have been clear about Jerusalem being the focal point of end-time prophecy. In fact, we have always stressed that all end-time believers need to keep one eye on Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the City of the King, the landing pad for God's return flight. If there is no Jerusalem, then there is no Israel and no God of Israel. The Scriptures are emphatic about our attitude toward Jerusalem.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Psalms 137:5 6

I encourage you to stay focused on the Middle East and the government of Israel. Pray that my Jewish brethren will turn to the Lord and stop looking to other nations to support them. As an American citizen I can see the direction our government is heading, and I have no doubt that the United States will join others nations in opposing Israel. They are already taking those steps. Therefore, Israel has only the Lord to defend them, which is as it should be, because when Israel turns to the Lord, Jerusalem will be transformed. It will begin with the God of Israel speaking for Israel in the Middle East Peace negotiations.

For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.

Isaiah 37:35

The nations will be opposed to Israel not giving up Jerusalem for the two-state solution. They will attempt to take it by force, but then God will respond from Jerusalem.

A voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to His enemies.

Isaiah 66:6

Then the nations will lose and there will be peace. Then the nations will visit Jerusalem.

And the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; and they will call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 60:14

I am praying that this process (Israel trusting the Lord and the Lord defending Jerusalem) will come soon. In the meantime, I ask that you join me—

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Psalms 122:6

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