If Israel is God’s country; if Jerusalem is God’s city; if the Temple Mount is the place of God’s throne; then we can understand that the devil must be very angry today. Of course, when we speak of the devil, we are speaking of the ancient spiritual being who is very much alive, and whose existence is fully documented in the Bible. Some additional proofs of his existence can be seen in the numerous and unexplainable persecutions of the Jews through the ages as well as the continuing insane hatred against Israel in the Middle East.
     The devil may not only be angry, but we can assume that he is also very nervous about this situation. We particularly sense this nervousness in regard to the City of Jerusalem, and most especially in regard to the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the most important 35 acres on the face of this earth, and the devil, being the strategist he is, certainly realizes this fact.
     It is noticeable that even small events in Jerusalem quickly take on world-wide significance. In the fall of 1996, there was an event that clearly illustrated the devil’s apparent nervousness and rage over the Temple Mount. The Israelis decided to open the end of an ancient tunnel that ran alongside the Western Wall. The tunnel itself had already been open to tourists for several years, but it was crowded and inconvenient. The problem was that the tunnel had an entryway but no exit. The simple routine of opening a tunnel exit near the Temple Mount set off a small-scale war in Israel and sent shock waves all over the world.
     Contrary to most media reports, this tunnel had nothing to do with endangering a Muslim mosque. The closest mosque was over 1/2 kilometer away. (1) The area in which the tunnel was located, the area of the Western Wall, was an area controlled by the Jews. The real problem was not with the tunnel at all, but it was the fact that Jews were too close to the Temple Mount. It was a threat to the devil who himself desires to be enthroned on the Temple Mount rather than the God of Israel (Isa. 14:13).
     If Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount all indeed figure in God’s plan for the end days, then the devil cannot allow this plan to succeed. He must do everything possible to stop it. Its success means his demise.

MADNESS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

     The continual madness and insanity in the Middle East attests to the apparent rage of the devil concerning Israel. We see clearly in Daniel 10:12-14, that the devil manipulates nations in his hatred of Israel. Probably because of this hatred, the Middle East has been called "the world’s deadliest neighborhood." (2) This satanic rage has made the Middle East probably the most politically and militarily unstable area of the world today.
     The madness touches most all the Muslim nations in the Middle East. Indeed, Islam is a very convenient tool for the devil in his purposes. Even nations like Iran, which is over 600 miles away from Israel, is almost insane with Israel hatred. Each year, on their "Jerusalem Day," screaming mobs march through their streets, vowing the total destruction of Israel. This nation, which has no common borders with Israel, and is certainly not threatened by Israel in any way, has spent hundreds of millions to maintain its Hizbollah terrorists on Israel’s northern border.
     Likewise Iraq, which also has no common border with Israel, has in the past expressed the same insane Israel hatred. While Iraq was fighting for her very life against the coalition forces in the Gulf War of 1991, she was spending her precious missiles, not to destroy the coalition forces, but to senselessly strike out at Israel. Why would Iraq, who was fighting for her life, launch a missile attack on Israel, who was not even fighting in the war? The whole episode hints of an other-worldly spiritual source behind these attacks.
     One wonders if these attacks were not launched to try and discourage or even stop the massive flow of new immigrants. At precisely that time tens of thousands were arriving in Israel from the former USSR.

POLITICS AS A TOOL

     No doubt, Satan has found politics a very successful tool in his age-old effort to deprive the children of Israel of their heritage. Because of politics, world statesmen and even religious leaders have to take great care today to sound "politically correct" when they speak of Israel.

The United Nations Headquarters in New York 
(Wikimedia Commons)

     Satan has likely found the United Nations a cooperative tool for his purposes. Although it was the UN vote that made Israel possible in 1947, since that time the organization has become extremely anti-Israel.
     UN resolutions over the years have been heavily weighted against Israel. From 1947 until 1989, there were 321 General Assembly resolutions in condemnation of Israel. During this same period there were no resolutions condemning any Arab state or the PLO. During this period there were also 49 Security Council resolutions condemning Israel and none condemning Arab states or the PLO. (3) On the average, the UN still passes 30 anti-Israel resolutions each year. (4)
     On June 9, 1991, a Jerusalem Post editorial marveled that although Israel was only one-thousandth of the world’s population, she had managed to occupy 30 percent of the UN Security Council meetings, and to be the subject of a third of its resolutions. The editorial went on to say that since the establishment of the UN, that organization has spent more time and energy seeking to condemn and de-legitimize Israel than it has spent on any other agenda item. (5)
     The UN has no scruples at meddling in Israel’s internal affairs. After Israel declared Jerusalem its capital in 1980, the Security Council adopted Resolutions 476 and 478. These resolutions called for all member states maintaining their diplomatic missions in Jerusalem to withdraw them. (6) The nations responded and virtually all missions were transferred to Tel Aviv.
     On November 10, 1975, the anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht in Germany, the UN chose to pass its resolution number 3379 against Israel. This resolution which was drafted ostensibly to combat racism, declared that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." This resolution, basically declaring Zionism illegal, was not rescinded until December 16, 1991.
     Although Israel is one of the older members of the UN, she has remained as the only member state excluded from serving on the Security Council. One European diplomat quipped that Israel is "the only permanent non-member of the council." (7)

The UN Security Council chambers
(Wikimedia Commons)

     The hypocrisy of the UN is clearly seen in its failure to censure radical Muslim nations such as Syria, when 20,000 of its citizens were slaughtered at Hama in 1982, or when, contrary to the first Geneva Convention, Egypt in 1966, and Iraq in 1988, both used poison gas. (8) Yet when Israel destroyed the Iraqi nuclear capability in 1981 she was roundly condemned. Had Israel not done so, the Gulf War a decade later may have had a far different outcome for the nations. It would surely have taken on nuclear proportions.
     There has been much discussion in the UN and among the nations of the world in regard to UN resolutions 242 and 338. These resolutions were passed by the UN immediately after Israel’s wars of 1967 and 1973. They both have to do with establishing secure borders.
     There is hardly a border on earth that has not been established in some way by war. Traditionally, the loser aggressor nations have to pay a big price in territory lost for their aggression. That is true in every place on earth except in Israel. In Israel, due to UN and world pressures, the aggressors are usually rewarded and Israel is forced to surrender territory won in order that aggressors may live to fight another day.
     Resolution 242 calls for Arab nations to end their state of belligerency in regard to Israel. It calls for Israel to withdraw from territories, without specifying what territories or how much territory. The wording "territories" and not "all territories" or "the territories" was deliberate. (9) Israel was not expected to withdraw to its indefensible positions before the 1967 war.
     Resolution 338, which was drafted after the 1973 war, was simply a call for the implementation of resolution 242. The Arab nations have refused to understand these resolutions according to their careful wordings, but have insisted that Israel withdraw from all territory conquered in these wars. It may be added that the Arab nations have made no effort to cease from their belligerency. These resolutions have been the basis for virtually all modern peace negotiations in the Middle East.
     After the Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt in 1978, Israel withdrew from the Sinai. This amounted to over 90 percent of all land she had conquered in the wars. (10) Israel paid a dear price for peace by surrendering her newly developed oil reserves, airfields, settlements and strategic depth.

     As Israel has traditionally surrendered territory, UN observers or UN forces are moved in. This was the case in previous surrenders of the Sinai by Israel. The problem with "impartial" UN forces is that they are never impartial. From 1948 to 1967, the UN Truce Supervision Organization utterly failed to prevent the infiltration of Palestinian terrorists into Israel. (11) When Egypt’s President Nasser ordered the UN out of the Sinai as he prepared for the invasion of Israel in 1967, they promptly complied.
     The UN in Lebanon has done similarly. When the Israeli forces routed the PLO out of Lebanon in 1982 they were horrified at what they found. They learned that the PLO had established its central training facility for young terrorists in a vocational school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency. Some 600 boys and girls ages 18-19 were being trained there to become PLO officers. (12) The UNRWA staff was unable to give an explanation of the PLO’s presence there.

     The peace negotiations of the last decade were kicked off at an international meeting in Madrid in 1991. The process was largely as an aftermath of the Gulf War, but somewhat as a result of the Intifada (Arab Uprising) that began in 1987. The peace momentum greatly increased over the next few years, and secret direct negotiations began to be conducted between members of Israel’s Labor government and the PLO. Many of these negotiations were under the sponsorship of Norway and in time the new peace initiative resulted in the Olso Accords.
     The Oslo Accords were hastily put together by Israel’s Labor government. The accords were then put into action without proper study and without approval of the public. In the accords, Israel agreed to pull her forces out of Jericho and Gaza first of all (Oslo I). Later Israel pulled out of the major cities of the West Bank, including Bethlehem, Shechem and most of Hebron (Oslo II). Israel is now scheduled to make additional withdrawals of her forces until almost half of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) is surrendered to the newly created Palestinian Authority (PA).
     Only after she was deeply involved did Israel learn that the PA was not keeping its end of the agreement. The hateful Palestinian Covenant which called for the eradication of Israel had not been amended as agreed. In numerous instances, the PA had violated its agreement. (13)
     Israel then learned that the Norwegian leaders who framed the agreement were, in their student days, passionate advocates of the PLO, and the establishment of a Palestinian secular state replacing Israel. This group included even the Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Godal. (14)
     Israel began to pay a heavy price for its supposed "peace." Israel was surprised to learn that more of her citizens had been killed by terror during the peace process than before it started. Immediately the PLO began to increase the size of its police force until it swelled to a small army of almost 50,000. The Gaza-Jericho Accords of May 1994 had stipulated a police force of no more than 9000.

 (Photo credit Wikimedia Commons)

     The PLO leader at the time, Yasser Arafat, then began to illegally import and stockpile weapons of all kinds. The PLO began to use its newly acquired areas as safe bases for its terror attacks.
     The Arabs in these areas began to steal everything possible from the Israelis. In 1996 they stole Israeli vehicles at the rate of about 100 each day. This rate amounted to about one out of every six vehicles in Israel stolen each year. (15) These vehicles were immediately transported to the safety of the Palestinian Authority. Some were even used later by the Palestinian policemen.
     In the spring of 1996, Israel was devastated by massive attacks on buses in Jerusalem, at other bus stations, and in the commercial area of Tel Aviv. After the attacks, 69 Israelis were dead and scores were wounded.
     Through the Oslo Accords, Israel was committed to her own self-destruction. She was committed to import into her area some of the most deadly terrorists in the world. In fact, upon their arrival these deadly terrorists were routinely made officers in the PA police force. For all future wars, Israel would now have a well armed "fifth-column" within her own borders, and this group would be devoted to her complete destruction.
     The prestige of the world’s great nations has been placed squarely behind "solving" the Israel problem. Even the White House in Washington has been the scene of signings of these agreements. In October, 1998, Israel and Palestinian leaders were summoned to the Wye Plantation outside Washington and kept there for nine days until an agreement for withdrawal by Israel could be hammered out. This agreement dealt with further deployments by Israel as well as with security issues.
     At the turn of the second millennium, a new initiative was begun by the US at Shepherdstown, West Virginia. This initiative of January, 2000, was aimed at forcing the Israelis to withdraw from Golan Heights. The Golan is a small strip of land some 25 kilometers (15.5 mile) wide and 75 kilometers (46.6 miles) long that was gained by Israel in the defensive war of 1967. However this small strip is of great strategic worth to Israel. Israeli soldiers perched on Mt. Hermon can see deep into Syria, thus virtually eliminating a Syrian surprise attack. The Golan also controls many of the water sources for the Sea of Galilee, which provides about a third of Israel’s water. Other considerations are that the Golan, which now has some 18,000 Jewish residents, was an area of ancient Israelite settlement from the time of Moses.
     Those who are anxious to cede the Golan for a piece of paper forget that the Golan has been Israel’s quietest border, even without a peace agreement.
     At the July, 2000 Camp David Summit in the US, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, Ehud Barak, Israel’s Prime Minister and Bill Clinton, the US President, met in the glow of international media. Unfortunately, Arafat turned down the 95 percent offer of the West Bank and Gaza made by Ehud Barak. Arafat opted to begin a second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) rather than take the plunge of peace.
     Despite the collapse of Camp David the peace process lumbered on. The next move in 2002 was by the so-called "quartet," made up of the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. This effort was labeled as the Road Map. This plan continues to be the underlying proposal of the latest peace moves in Annapolis Maryland.

THE REFUGEE PROBLEM

Palestinian refugees in 1948
(Wikimedia Commons)

     Israel has been consistently bashed by the media, the UN and world’s leaders. A convenient area of bashing is the resettlement of Arab refugees from all her wars, particularly the war of 1948.
     The Palestinian refugee problem is a problem that cannot be solved. It cannot be solved precisely because Arab governments and the PLO will not allow it to be solved. It is too convenient to use as a political weapon against Israel.
     Our world has seen millions of refugees. After World War II there were some 3,000,000 Sudeten German refugees. West Germany alone since World War II is said to have rehabilitated over nine million refugees. There were also vast population shifts in other parts of the world. It is estimated that since World War II there have been over 40 million refugees in the world. (16) Most of these refugees have been quickly resettled in other countries. Not so the Palestinians.
     The Arab countries quickly perceived the propaganda potential of these helpless people and they have been exploited for a half century for this purpose.
     The Arab refugee problem was originally much the fault of Arab countries. During Israel’s war of Independence, Arab leaders advised Palestinians to flee the land until their invasion was complete. Great numbers complied, even over the objections of Jewish authorities.
     It has been calculated that the total number of Arab refugees was 650,000, with some estimates as low as 472,000. (17) Soon, however, UNRWA, the UN affiliate in charge of the refugees began to speak of numbers exceeding one million. Later it was disclosed that the lists had been greatly padded by unreported deaths and forged ration cards. The figures continued to be inflated until they were speaking of two million and even three million refugees. All this served the Arab propaganda machine very well.
     Now as a part of the peace process, the PLO is demanding that these refugees be returned to the land. Of course, such a move would spell the end of the sovereign state of Israel.
     What has been cleverly obscured in all the clamor concerning refugees, is that an almost parallel expulsion of Jews from Arab lands occurred in 1948 at the time Israel was becoming a state. Some 820,000 Jewish refugees fled or were forced out of Arab countries, in most cases leaving all their wealth behind. About 586,000 (18) of these refugees fled to Israel and they were quickly absorbed by the newly formed nation.
     With each passing year the Palestinian refugee problem grows larger and larger, no doubt, to the delight of the devil. It is an unfortunate act of manipulation by the Arabs of their own people as it continues to be used as a powerful media tool to bash Israel.

     Being a member of the media in the Middle East can be a very hazardous job. Islam does not tolerate opinions contrary to its own beliefs and goals. This was vividly illustrated to the world some years back by the author Salmon Rushdie. He wrote a book critical of Islam and because of it he now has a permanent death threat on his head. Several years after the book’s publication, Rushdie still remains in hiding.
     During Israel’s first war with the PLO in Lebanon, a completely biased job of reporting was done by the media there. Should we even wonder why? The answer is easy.
     Edouard George, former editor of the French language daily, L’Orient le Jour in West Beirut, has related a detailed story of intimidation of the media by the PLO, as well as a list of foreign journalists murdered by the organization. The list includes, Larry Buchman of ABC Television; Mark Tryon of Free Belgium radio; Robert Pfeffer, correspondent for the weeklies Der Spiegel of West Germany and Unita of Italy; Italian journalist Tony Italo and Greciella Difaco; ABC correspondent Sean Toolan; and Jean Lougeau, correspondent for French TF-1. (19)
     George relates how Lebanese papers had their offices bombed and destroyed by the PLO. He relates how editors and owners of newspapers were intimidated and murdered. For instance, Salim Lawzi, owner of the prestigious weekly Al-Hawadit, "was apprehended at a PLO check-post in July 1978 and taken to Aramoun village, where he was tortured. His eyes were gouged out and his body cut to pieces. Photos of his body were distributed among the press community of Beirut as a warning." (20) It is no wonder that the reports we heard out of Lebanon were biased against Israel and in favor of the PLO. The reporters and publishers simply wanted to live.
     The same tactics were used by Yasser Arafat when the Palestinian Authority was formed. The international organization "Reporters Without Borders," stated that in the first year and one half of the Palestinian Authority’s operation, 29 reporters were arrested and 10 newspapers were closed down. The group stated that the PLO has no scruples at using threats and violence to control the media. (21)
     During the Christmas season in 1995, Maher Alami, editor of the Al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem, was kidnapped by the PLO. His crime was that he failed to put a favorable article of Arafat on the front page of his paper. It seemed not to matter that Al-Quds was the most pro-Arafat paper in print at the time. (22)
     In addition to all this, the Muslim world is spending millions of petrodollars to buy up newspapers and radio networks worldwide. (23) Obviously, these media outlets will play the PLO tune.
     The media characteristically uses politically loaded terminology in speaking of Israel. We constantly hear of "occupied territories." This term immediately paints a picture of cruel occupiers rather than Israeli settlers on their own God-given land. At the same time we never hear Jordan called an occupied territory, and yet it is. We never hear of Syria occupying all of Lebanon, yet that is exactly what she did for the last several years. We hear of "West Bank" instead of Judea and Samaria or biblical Israel. We never hear of the "East Bank." That one was stolen away from Israel long ago by the British and given to create Transjordan.

     It seems that the devil has cleverly used the surrounding Arab nations in his age-old plot to destroy Israel. This is sad indeed when we consider that many of these surrounding nations are also children of Abraham through Ishmael, Esau, and other of his descendants. Yet, they were lured into this plot thousands of years ago and are still victims of it.
     We read in scripture that Jerusalem will ultimately drive these surrounding Arab nations mad. We see this brought out clearly in Zechariah 12:2, as the Lord says: "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling..."
     The Arab nations have been duped to fight against Israel and Jerusalem. The Arab people have been drawn into this Palestinian ploy of the devil. The struggle in the Middle East today is not about Palestinian rights. It is about the devil’s rights to the Temple Mount, to Jerusalem and to Israel.
     Why did the Olso Accords seek to strip Jericho from the Israelis first of all? Could it be because Jericho was the first city conquered by the Israelis almost 3500 years ago? How interesting! The devil would certainly like to undo that conquest forever. The valley of Achor which is near Jericho is called in the scripture "a door of hope" (Hos. 2:15). Somehow, in ways we cannot understand, Israel’s door of hope was stolen away by the devil when the Oslo Accords gave Jericho to the Palestinians.
     What one thing did all these cities have in common that are now given over to the Palestinians? These cities were Jenin, Kalkilya, Tulkarem, Nablus (Shechem), Ramalla, Bethlehem and most of Hebron. These cities are all situated on the mountain ridge that runs north and south through the land of Israel. That mountain ridge comprises what we can assuredly call biblical Israel. God speaks specifically that this mountainous area is the place to which the children of Israel shall return after their dispersion (Ezek. 36:10).
     It was at Shechem (Nablus) that God first promised Abraham the land, while the latter was actually standing upon it (Gen. 12:6-7). At Shechem the covenant was first written down and affirmed in the land (Josh. 8:30-35). It is the place of Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well. Now due to the Olso Accords, it is lost to Israel and is now a part of Palestine Authority.
     Bethlehem, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, was the scene of the drama of Ruth and Boaz. It was the home of David, but most important of all it was the birthplace of Jesus. Just a few decades ago it was a predominantly Christian city. Today it is largely Muslim and now given over to the Palestinian Authority. The Christian population has now dropped to under 20 percent. The tomb of Rachel still stands forlornly just outside Bethlehem. We might wonder if Rachel is once more weeping for her children, who have had this precious and meaningful heritage stolen from them once again (Jer. 31:15).
     Hebron, like Shechem was a city of refuge in biblical times. It was the burial place of most of Israel’s patriarchs, including Abraham and Sarah. It was the first capital of King David before he moved to Jerusalem. It was the southern gateway city into the mountains of Biblical Israel. Today it is largely given over to the Palestinian Authority.
     There is an apparent other-worldly plan in all this. The plan is to undo Joshua’s ancient conquests of the mountains, and to insure that Israel will not resettle her ancient homeland. In biblical times Israel lived in the mountains. It was the Philistines who lived in the coastal plains. Today, something of the reverse is the case. The Palestinians, who erroneously call themselves Philistines, control the mountains and the Israelis are squeezed into the coastal plains.
     This is apparently not satisfactory for the devil. His ultimate intent appears to be the drowning of Israel in the sea. This intent has been spoken many times by the former PLO leader Arafat and other Muslim radicals. Even this will not suffice as we see in a 1995 quote from Babel, a leading Iraqi newspaper: "The idea of throwing the Israelis into the sea is not good enough, since the Jews know how to swim and will survive." (26)
     We can see now how the much touted "land for peace" will never bring peace in the Middle East. Today Israel could offer every inch of her land holdings to the Palestinians and keep only one tiny 35 acre plot known as the Temple Mount. If Israel only visited this plot by helicopter one day a year, the jihad against Israel would continue unabated.
     The problems in the Middle East are therefore not political or geographical. They are spiritual and can only be dealt with from a spiritual frame of reference.

     In recent years, the division of Jerusalem has become a "global consensus." The UN, the US, and nations everywhere are eager to divide Jerusalem once more.
     The nations of the earth are reluctant and even fearful to place their embassies in Jerusalem. To date only Costa Rica and El Salvador have dared keep embassies in the city. Now they too have given up the battle and have recently moved out. Even a mighty nation like the US has vacillated and trembled about this decision for years and seems very reluctant to move its embassy from Tel Aviv. There is no other country on earth where the nations have boycotted the capital city as they have done to Jerusalem.
     This is only one of the numerous hypocritical acts of the nations regarding Israel. We can be sure that God will not put up with such hypocrisy much longer. In ancient times the area of the Temple Mount was a threshing floor. David purchased this threshing floor and later Solomon’s Temple was built on that spot (2 Sam. 24:18).
     What happens on a threshing floor? There the grain is separated from the stalk by running it over with a threshing sledge. Then when the Mediterranean breezes blow in the late afternoon, the grain can be winnowed or separated from the chaff.
     It is appropriate that the Temple was built on a threshing floor. God is about to "thresh" the nations and the devil on that very spot.

Why might the devil be nervous over Jewish activity in Jerusalem?

Explain why UN fairness may be just a modern myth.

List three things that could cause many Israelis to look upon the Oslo Accords with suspicion.

What one fact would seemingly counterbalance the Arab refugee problem?

Why might news reports originating from the Middle East be un-factual or biased?

What is significant about the mountain cities of ancient Israel being handed over to the Palestinian Authority?

NOTES

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