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1995-10-29
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"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.