Uprooted From The Promised Land

Church & Israel Forum

UPROOTED FROM THE PROMISED LAND

"‘I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,’ says the LORD your God." Amos 9:14-15.

     There is one thing that makes writing about Israel easy. While faces of the antagonists change over the decades and centuries, the program never changes. The devil has been trying to uproot Israel from the land for the last four thousand years, ever since the covenant was instituted with Abraham and the land of Israel was given to him and to his children forever (Gen. 17:8; 1 Chron. 16:15-18).
     In the last half-century there have been several so-called "peace plans," all designed with this very purpose in mind, to uproot Israel. Of course, there was no need of a "peace plan" during the 1900 years that successive foreigners ruled the land. But at the middle of the twentieth century the biblical heritage was restored to newly-founded Israel.
     Almost at that moment the "peace plans" began to be dreamed up by anti-Semitic or oil-hungry nations. To name a few, there was the Rogers Plan as far back as 1969, the Vance Plan, the Reagan Plan, the Mitchell Plan, the Oslo Plan, the Tenet Plan, the Saudi Plan and now the Road Map Plan. These plans all have one thing in common and that is to separate Israel from her God-given heritage. Somehow by the grace of God the Children of Israel still cling to the land.

THE MOST RECENT "PEACE PLAN"

     The current peace plan is called the "Road Map," and the object of this plan (same as always) is to get Israel out of her land. That should not be surprising since the Road Map was formulated some years back by "The Quartet" (the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia). Three out of four of these members are sworn enemies of Israel.
     Let us do a quick recap of this latest plan. Some of the main points are as follows: Israel must dismantle all outposts and freeze all settlement activity, even including natural growth for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents living in the disputed territories. Israel must withdraw from all areas it entered after the latest intifada (Arab uprising) in September, 2000. It must also end all "occupation" that began in 1967. Thus Israel will eventually be confined to what Abba Eban once referred to as the "Auschwitz borders." As final insults, foreign observers will then be installed in Israel and the door will be left open to the eventual division of sacred Jerusalem.
     Along with this, a Palestinian state will be instituted on much of Israel’s God-given soil, and of course this new state is destined to receive quick international recognition. International conferences also will be orchestrated by the Quartet to work out all remaining items of disagreement. It is of note that where previous peace plans were of the negotiated type, this one seems to be of the imposed type.
     The Palestinians are required to have elections and to make yet another of their lame attempts to control terror, along with dismantling terrorist organizations. The latter was agreed to by the Palestinians in the Oslo program that began in 1993, but there was never any real effort expended to accomplish this. In fact, terror increased dramatically.
     On an even darker page of the Road Map, the document also leaves the door open on the subject of air space, the Palestinian Authority’s right to sign international agreements, and the Palestinian right of return to the land. It has been realized for a long time that such a Palestinian return would become a demographic disaster quickly spelling an end to the sovereign state of Israel.

INITIAL FOCUS- THE GAZA AREA

     The present "peace" initiative is now focusing largely on the Gaza area, plus on four small communities in northern Samaria (West Bank). All these areas must become Judenrein (free of Jews) as the peace plan is consummated. And we want to make clear that the present initiative is only a beginning. The whole area of Judea and Samaria (West Bank including the Temple Mount and much of Jerusalem), must finally be turned over to the Arabs. We remember that this whole area was the homeland of the ancient Israelites. Most of the biblical cities, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Shechem, Gibeon, Bethel and Shiloh are included in this area. Some of these important cities have already been turned over to the Palestinians through the ill-fated Oslo accords.
     As the Gaza phase of the program begins this August, there will likely be a great deal of strife among the Israelis, particularly among the Bible-believing ones. They need our prayers. None of us would like to be kicked out of our home, and especially by our own confused and compromised government.
     Gush Katif (Katif settlement block) that we hear so often on the news is really just another name for Gaza’s Jewish cities and communities. There are 21 different communities in all with well over 8000 people involved. Many of the communities date back to the seventies and eighties, with one going all the way back to 1946.*
     The Katif block has been an incredible economic blessing to Israel. Of Israel’s total exports abroad, Gush Katif produces 95% of the special bug-free lettuce and greens; 70% of organic vegetables; 60% of its cherry tomatoes; 60% of geraniums exported to Europe. The total sum of exports comes to $100,000,000 or 15% of Israel’s agricultural export total. The community of Atzmona boasts of having Israel’s largest plant nursery and Gush Katif barns with their 800 cows are the second largest in Israel. In addition, the Katif industrial zones provide work for hundreds of Israel’s southern residents.
     According to the "peace" plan, all 1600 Israeli dwellings in Gaza must be destroyed. Afterward, what’s left of the vast agricultural bonanza will fall into the hands of Israel’s sworn enemies, the Palestinians. This will include almost a thousand acres of greenhouses.
     For years many of these Gaza communities have been regularly bombarded by Palestinian homemade rockets and by other weapons that are often smuggled in from Egypt. Once Katif has been emptied out and the Jews are gone, the rockets can be quickly re-aimed at all the surrounding Israeli cities. Then the Sinai border as well as the southern Mediterranean coastline will be free to become a mecca for Palestinian weapons smugglers.

HOW WILL IT ALL END?

     We can know one thing for sure and certain. God is very angry with nations who try to divide up his land (Joel 3:1-2). God promises: "In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land." There will likely be some big fireworks over this latest plan and some of these fireworks may come from God.
     The nations by now should know the perils of messing with God’s program. God has brought his scattered and oppressed people home from the nations, with over a million Jewish people coming home in the last decade or so. They have returned to the one piece of real estate in all the world that God himself has sworn to them as an eternal possession. It is said in Genesis 15:18: "On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates’" (Gen. 15:18). This description clearly includes the Gaza Strip and it also includes all of what is now called the West Bank. We also remember the sure word of God in which he promises all the Gaza area to the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:47).
     This is not some passing fancy with God, as even some Christians suppose, based upon whether or not Israel exactly suits his taste (cf. Jer. 31:35-37). It is said in Psalm 105:8-11, "He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’"

-Jim Gerrish

Publication date, July, 2005

For more information on Gush Katif see http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/katif.htm