The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 47 Issue: 16 - Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Land of the Philistines
Despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israel's public image continues to plummet across Europe. Most Europeans doubt that the Israelis want peace, for example, but they believe the Palestinians do.
In November 2003, a EU poll found that 59% of Europeans felt Israel was a greater threat to world peace than the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.
Some 35 percent of Europeans believe that the Israel Defense Forces intentionally target Palestinian civilians. Almost half of Frenchmen and Germans surveyed believe the White House should exert more pressure on Israel; less than one fifth want to see more pressure on the Palestinians.
In another European poll, 39 percent agreed that "Israel's treatment of Palestinians is similar to South Africa's treatment of blacks during the apartheid regime.
Fourteen percent felt Palestinian terrorism to be justified -- including those who did not agree they believed Israel's response to terrorism to be "excessive." Even more amazing, almost half felt that Israel was not an "open and democratic society."
There is a growing and almost irrational hatred of Ariel Sharon across Europe, which is manifesting itself in the growing number of anti-semitic, anti-Zionist incidents. The EU's obsession with involving itself in the peace process has only made things worse.
In a February 2004 interview, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, author of the 1981 book, "The Imaginary Jew,"described the atmosphere in France. "The loathing of Israel today is so thick you could cut it with a knife. There is a consistent Nazification of the Jewish state … Of course, Sharon is an extraordinary alibi."
In 2004 more than half of Europeans viewed Sharon unfavorably -- a higher percentage than those who viewed Arafat negatively.
Studies suggest that, in Europe, unfavorable views toward Israel are proportional to the closeness with which citizens follow media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The European media has embraced the Palestinian narrative.
In the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany, anti-Israel sentiment was far greater among those who said they learned about the conflict through the media.
In the United Kingdom, for example, sympathy for the Palestinians registered 30 percent but rose to 41 percent among those who followed the media coverage "a good amount" or a "great amount."
In an interview with the British left-of-center Guardian daily, Martin Newland, editor of the conservative The Daily Telegraph, revealed that he fired editorialists Dean Godson and Barbara Amiel for being too pro-Israel. In 2002, the French daily of record, Le Monde, published a comment likening Israel to 'a cancer'.
The Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera conducted a survey to ascertain anti-Semitic attitudes and public opinion on the Israeli conflict. The survey found that close to 40 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that "the Israeli government is perpetrating a full-fledged genocide and is acting with the Palestinians the way the Nazis did with the Jews."
Israel-Nazi equations are even greater in Germany where, according to a December 2004 survey quoted in The Jerusalem Post, 51 percent of respondents felt Israel's treatment of Palestinians "was not so different" from the Nazis' treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust.
The same poll found an even broader segment of the German public, 68 percent, agreeing with the proposition that, "Israel is waging a war of extermination against the Palestinians."
Assessment:
"Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for My Name, will I cast out of My sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:" (1st Kings 9:7)
The fulfillment of this prophecy regarding the children of Israel was fulfilled with such detail as to be breathtaking, when one takes the time to compare it to the history of the Jewish people.
Israel was literally 'cut off out of the land' by Sargon II of Assyria in 702 BC when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was invaded and assimilated into the Assyrian Empire.
The Temple was destroyed and the Ark of the Covenant lost when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 686 BC.
Although the Jews eventually rebuilt and restored the Temple on Temple Mount, the Temple never regained the glory it had when the Ark was in residence, and eventually, the 2nd Temple was also destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. Those Jews who survived the subsequent Roman massacre were largely scattered among the nations, where they indeed became a 'proverb' and a 'byword'.
(To this day, there is a plant called the 'wandering Jew'. The phrase, 'Jewing somebody down' when negotiating a price for something, is offensive, but not uncommon).
"Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people." (Psalms 44:14)
The Jews were unwelcome guests in each nation to which they had been scattered, gathered together into ghettos and systematically persecuted and murdered in anti-semitic pogroms.
"And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee." (Deuteronomy 28:37)
Jews were kept a peculiar people by Divine direction. The first nation in the history of the world to grant full citizenship to Jews was the United States.
Everywhere else, a Jew was a Jew, without regard to his place of birth. Across Europe, Jews were excluded from normal social intercourse, and, in many countries, forbidden to intermarry.
The term "Palestinian" is confusing because before 1948, this term not only referred to Arabs but to Jews as well as Christians living in the region of Palestine.
It should be noted that there was never such nation as 'Palestine'. The area known as 'Palestine' was renamed to 'Palestine' [Palestina] which means, "land of the Philistines" by the Romans after the dispersal of the Jews in AD 70.
Although the majority were scattered, the Jews continued to maintain a presence in Palestine despite foreign control by the Romans, Ottoman Turks, the Crusaders, the Turks, and then the British. Under all those regimes, over the space of nearly 2,000 years, Jerusalem was never important enough to be named even as a provincial capital, let alone the capital city of some Palestinian nation.
The Islamic claim that Jerusalem is the third holiest place in Islam is historically and provably illegitimate.
It is based on a verse in the Koran (Sura 17:1) that says Mohammed ascended into heaven on a winged steed from the 'furthest mosque' which Islam claims is the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
[When Mohammed died in 632, the Temple Mount was occupied by a Christian church -- which continued to occupy the site until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 638. The Al Aqsa Mosque was built between 709-715 A.D. by Caliph al-Waleed, son of Abd el-Malik, long after Mohammed was dead].
None of this is a secret. Anybody can look all this up in a matter of minutes. (Even the Europeans). But somehow, Israel remains a pariah nation widely condemned as an illegal occupying force (on land unwanted by anybody else until their arrival).
A byword, and a reproach to all the people. Consistently, throughout their history, right up to the present day, precisely as predicted by Scripture.
The prophet Daniel predicted that, at the time of the end, the old Roman Empire would again rise to global prominence as a political force, at the same point in history as a restored nation of Israel. (Israel declared independence in 1948, the same year that the EU was born out of the Benelux treaty nations.)
As Israel is withdrawing from Gaza, (the historical 'Land of the Philistines" -- not part of David's Kingdom, but part of the original land grant to Abraham), it is worth noting that Daniel predicted the political 'land for peace process' of the last days, saying;
"Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall DIVIDE THE LAND FOR GAIN." (Daniel 11:39)
Daniel said that the leader of this revived Roman empire would "confirm the covenant with many for one week" {Heb. 'shabua' ie 7 years}. The 'land for peace' model upon which any future settlement must be based is the Oslo formula. It was originally scheduled to run for exactly seven years, had it not collapsed.
The forumula for the agreement exists. It remains to be confirmed.
Daniel provides clues as to how that final agreement will appear. Somehow, Israel will regain control of at least part of the Temple Mount, Daniel says, because part of the agreement involves the restoration of Temple worship.
Halfway through the 7 year agreement, "he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." (Daniel 9:26) So an accomodation permitting Temple worship at some point seems likely.
Now, just for a second, try and imagine that this is all a coincidence. It is a coincidence that the history of the Jews conforms precisely to their history as foretold thousands of years in advance.
It is a coincidence that, after being scattered among the nations for 2,000 years, they emerged a 'peculiar people'; customs, dietary laws, traditions, language and culture intact, and found themselves in possession of the exact same piece of real estate the Bible said they would ultimately be restored to in the last days.
It is a coincidence that the old Roman Empire revived as a pan-European empire obsessed with injecting itself into the Arab-Israeli peace process.
It is a coincidence that there exists, in this generation, an unconfirmed seven year covenant between Israel and the alleged 'Palestinians' based on the principle of dividing the land for gain.
It is a coincidence that the most explosive, and therefore most important city on the face of the planet is Jerusalem, exclusively in this generation -- for the first time in 2000 years.
(Everybody from Osama bin Laden to Cindy Sheehan is blaming Israeli possession of Jerusalem for the war on terror.)
Zechariah prophesied, "And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:3)
If you can't follow all the coincidences through without finding yourself a bit skeptical, then that leaves only one other possible conclusion:
The Bible was true 2,500 years ago, and it is true today.
The same Divine foreknowledge that outlined the history of the Jewish people also foretold the events that would lead to the return of Christ in the last days.
If that Foreknowledge was 100% accurate over a 2,500 year period without wavering, then it is fair to conclude that same Divine Foreknowledge will be equally accurate concerning the events prophesied to span a single generation, somewhere in time.
And, since the world is locked in global combat over issues that ultimately distill down to whether Jerusalem belongs to the land of Israel or the Land of the Philistines, there is only one generation in history that qualifies to the exclusion of all others. This generation.
"And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)
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