DP Tool Club 26/CD_ASCQ_26_1295.iso/vrac/peace_me.zip/PEACE.ZIP/THIS_ZIP.3

Text File | 1995-10-29 | 10KB | 145 lines

"Perpetual Hatred"^15

Principle # 1: Bible prophets reveal a continual racial enmity between
Israel and the Arabs that is not resolved until Christ comes.

At the birth of each of the two chief progenitors of the Arab  peoples,
the Spirit spoke of their  bloody manner of life.   Concerning Ishmael,
the angel informed Hagar: And he will  be a wild man; his hand will  be
against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand against him; and he shall
dwell in the presence of all his brethren (Genesis 16:12).   Concerning
Esau, whose name  is Edom, his  father's blessing declared,  And by the
sword shalt thou live, and shalt  serve thy brother; and it shall  come
to pass when  thou shalt have  the dominion that  thou shalt break  his
yoke from off  thy neck (Genesis  27:40).  As  the historical books  of
the Old Testament  record, there were  various times in  history of the
monarchies  of  Israel  and  Judah  when  the Edomites rebelled against
their control and cast off the yoke.   Our view is that this aspect  of
the  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  and  that it has no application to
present events.   What we  are witnessing  is not  a case  in which the
Palestinians  have  the  dominion  nor  one  in which they are breaking
Israel's yoke from their  neck.  It is  a case in which  Israel, as the
stronger  party,  is  voluntarily  ceding  a  measure of control to the
Palestinians.   The section  of this  prophetic utterance  that is most
relevant to our time  is the declaration that  By the sword shalt  thou
live.  There  has never been  a time ordained  in the present  order of
things  when  the  sword  of  the  Edomites  will  be  laid  down.  The
continuing acts of terror, perpetrated by Hamas and breakaway  elements
of the  PLO, are  poignant evidence  that by  the sword  is the  way in
which Edom is  destined to live.   Therefore, any expectation  that the
peace between Israel  and the Palestinians  will end the  violence that
has  characterized  their  relationship  is  not  consistent  with  the
Scriptures.   No human  effort, no  matter how  sincerely motivated and
pragmatically carried out, will succeed in ending the conflict  between
the  Jews  and  the  Arabs.   The  prophets  are  very  clear that this
long-standing enmity  will continue  right up  until the  day when  the
Arab peoples  will be  brought into  judgment: Because  thou, (O  mount
Seir), hast  had a  perpetual hatred,  and hast  shed the  blood of the
children of Israel  by the force  of the sword  in the time  that their
iniquity had an end: Therefore, as  I live, saith the Lord GOD,  I will
prepare thee unto  blood, and blood  shall pursue thee:  sith thou hast
not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee (Ezekiel 35:5,6).   Mount
Seir is  used by  the prophet  to identify  Edom and  Edom, in turn, is
used as the principal patronymic  identifier in Scriptures of the  Arab
peoples.  The  prophetic term, perpetual  hatred, indicates that  there
will be no  abatement in the  hostility between the  children of Israel
and the  descendants of  Edom.   Concerning those  descendants of Edom,
there  was  one  particular  tribe  that  was  singled  out for special
retribution:  Because the LORD hath  sworn that the LORD will have  war
with  Amalek  from  generation  to  generation  (Exodus 17:16).  On the
strength of  this kind  of testimony,  it is  clear that  a new  era of
peace and prosperity is  not about to dawn  in the Middle East  through
the political arrangements reached by Israel with its Arab  neighbours.
Any doubt on this point is surely removed by the testimony of  Ezekiel.
Referring  to  all  that  are  round  about  as  a pricking briar and a
grieving thorn  to Israel,  the prophet  declared: Thus  saith the Lord
GOD:  When I  shall have gathered the  house of Israel from  the people
among whom they are scattered, and  shall be sanctified in them in  the
sight of the heathen, then shall  they dwell in their land that  I have
given to my servant  Jacob.  And they  shall dwell safely therein,  and
shall build  houses, and  plant vineyards;  yea, they  shall dwell with
confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that  despise
them round about  them; and they  shall know that  I am the  LORD their
God  (Ezekiel  28:25,26).   It  is  not  until the divine judgments are
executed on the Arab nations that border Israel that their capacity  to
act as a  pricking briar and  grieving thorn to  Israel ceases so  that
the descendants of  Jacob can dwell  in peace with  confidence.  As  we
shall  show  later,  it  is  through  the  work  of  Christ  that these
judgments  are  executed,  and  thus  this  prophecy  has  not yet been
fulfilled.

There is plenty  of evidence available  to those who  seek for it  that
the  Palestinian  intentions  are  not  sincere.   Mr.  Arafat,  in his
speeches and those of his  aides previously quoted, has made  no secret
that he  views the  accord reached  with Israel  as a  means to  an end
only.   The decision  of Israel  to turn  over a  measure of control in
Gaza and Jericho to  the Palestinians has resulted  in the arming of  a
significant number  of the  Palestinian people,  initially as policemen
to  keep  order.   This  flow  of  arms  in the areas under Palestinian
control, which Israel was previously able to restrict, will lead to  an
intensification in the  frequency and level  of violence.   One Israeli
writer  believes  that  this  violence  will  be reserved primarily for
Jerusalem  as  the  Arabs  use  terror  to  try  and  wear down Israeli
determination to hold on to the united city:

Maybe some  innocent souls  imagined that  after Gaza  and Jericho were
handed  over  to  the  PLO,  the  Palestinians  would  get down to work
cleaning the streets  and installing fire   hydrants.  But  even before
Yasser and  his cronies  had finished  unwrapping their  new toy, a PLO
"constitution" was revealed declaring that Jerusalem is the capital  of
Palestine...

But the timing of Yasser's call  for a jihad (previously cited in  this
paper - J.F.)  and the PLO  constitution is no  accident.  Much  to the
worst fears of Jerusalem's residents, the PLO probably plans to  strike
while the iron's hot, and  Jerusalem is the golden target  that they're
trying to grab.  Why Jerusalem?

...Jerusalem is glamor, high-profile, power and God.  It's the home  of
hundreds of foreign  correspondents, dozens of  TV crews.   Events here
are real-life drama to hundreds of millions throughout the world.   All
are waiting for the coming clash over the Holy City - either as a  sign
of  the  End  of  Days  or  as  a  preview of the coming power struggle
between East and West.   ...With the PLO controlling Gaza  and Jericho,
we've provided the  infrastructure and even  supplied the weapons  that
will soon  be finding  their way  into Jerusalem.   If the  past is any
barometer,  we  can  soon  expect  a  three-ring circus in the nation's
capital...   Violent  street  riots  will  be  a  daily fact of life in
eastern Jerusalem.   Mobs directed by  top PLO military  commanders and
supplied  with  modern  communications  equipment  will  turn  the area
around Salah e-Din Street and  Damascus Gate into a daily  battlefield,
with the border police fighting hundreds of "intifada kids" armed  with
stones  and  bottles.   Since  Jerusalem  can't  be  "closed"  like the
territories,  TV  crews  will  capture  every  minute  for   world-wide
exposure as  evidence of  Israel's slipping  hold on  Jerusalem...  Car
bombs,  fridge  bombs  and  bus  bombs  could be coming our way, giving
Jerusalemites the same sense of security previously experienced by  the
citizens of west Beirut.   Now that the PLO  is in control, we  have no
idea  of  the  amount  of  explosives  being  pipelined  from Gaza into
Jerusalem...  (Mitch Pilcer, The Jerusalem Post International  Edition,
The Intifada: Coming soon to a town near you!, June 18, 1994, p. 6)

Since this was written  in mid-June, there has  been at least one  high
profile incident  in east  Jerusalem.   In that  case, reported  in the
Jerusalem Post on  August 20, a  terror cell affiliated  with Hamas was
apprehended before  its intended  target was  hit.   Four heavily armed
gunmen  using  automatic  weapons  had  planned  an  attack on a border
police detail guarding the home  of Ariel Sharon in the  Moslem Quarter
of east Jerusalem when  their car was spotted  en route and ordered  to
stop.   A series  of pitched  gun battles  ensued ending  with death or
capture of three of the four gunmen.   If Mr. Pilcer is correct in  his
prediction,  this  kind  of  violence  in  Jerusalem  will  become   an
increasingly common pattern.   Israel cannot return  to the status  quo
ante, which it had  before handing the Gaza  strip and Jericho over  to
the  Palestinians.   It  must  now  deal  with their renewed ability to
organize  from  bases  under  their  control  and  infiltrate into east
Jerusalem  and  Israel  proper  with  sophisticated  weapons.   As  one
Israeli writer  put it,  Gaza and  Jericho are  now one "vast arsenal."
The enmity between the Arab  peoples and Israel will continue  unabated
until the  former are  brought into  divine judgment.   A corollary  to
this is that  the peace agreement  between Israel and  the Palestinians
will  not  prevent  the  perpetration  of  acts  of violence and terror
against  targets  within  Israel  and  particularly  within  Jerusalem.
Jewish blood will  continue to be  spilled.  The  divine declaration is
that the Arabs will live by the sword.