The Palestinian Farce

The following was extracted from the recent edition of the Berean Call published by Dave Hunt. It is by David Dolan.

Central to the Middle East conflict today is the issue of the so-called Palestinian people. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Yasser Arafat since 1969, claims to represent them. To this day, the PLO declares, "The struggle with the Zionist enemy is not a struggle about Israel's borders, but about Israel's existence."

The PLO is an Islamic terrorist organization. It trained most terrorists around the world: Idi Amin's murder gangs who killed about 300,000 black Christians in Uganda; the Italian Red Brigades; German BaaderMeinhof gang; the Iranian Revolutionary Guards; terrorists in Latin America, etc. Arafat committed his first murder at age 20. Under him the PLO became the most vicious and bloodiest terrorist organization ever known. It holds records for the biggest hijacking (4 aircraft at once), the largest number of hostages (300 at one time), the largest ransom extorted (B million from Lufthansa) and the greatest number and variety of targets (40 civilian aircraft, five passenger ships, 30 embassies or diplomatic missions, and massacres of school children), etc. The Palestinian Prize for Culture was recently awarded to Abu Daoud for his book telling how he planned and murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics!

The PLO's terrorism against Jordanian civilians was so vicious that King Hussein chased them into Lebanon. There the PLO wiped out the Christian towns of Damur, Beit Mallat, Tall Abbas and others. Its reign of terror went largely unreported. The international press was cowed into silence by the brutal murder of those who dared to tell the truth: Larry Buchman and Sean Toolan of ABC-TV, Mark Tryon of "Free Belgium Radio," Robert Pfeffer of Der Spiegel and others. About 300,000 Lebanese civilians were murdered in the PLO's rape of that country before the Israelis expelled them. Yet Israel was painted the villain!

Incredibly, Arafat and his PLO murderers have been sanitized and lionized by world media. John Paul's recent trip to Bethlehem was in response to Arafat's invitation to join him there to celebrate "our Jesus Christ." Our Jesus Christ? Arafat says Jesus was a Palestinian freedom fighter against Israel, and the Pope smiles and blesses him! John Paul II has warmly received Arafat in Rome many times. This ruthless, sadistic terrorist and murderer was given the Nobel Peace Prize and is honored as the champion of justice for the Palestinian people.

Palestinians? There never was a Palestinian people, nation, language, culture, or religion. The claim of descent from a Palestinian people who lived for thousands of years in a land called Palestine is a hoax! That land was Canaan, inhabited by Canaanites, whom God destroyed because of their wickedness. Canaan became the land of Israel given by God to His people.

Those who today call themselves Palestinians are Arabs by birth, language, and culture, and are close relatives to Arabs in surrounding countries from whence most of them came, attracted by Israel's prosperity. The name Palestine comes from the Philistines, who were not Semites, but-invaded Canaan from Crete and parts of Asia Minor. Yet Arafat, an Arab, claims that ancestry.

In A.D. 130, the Romans rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city with a temple to Jupiter where the Jewish temple had stood. Provoked to rebellion, about 500,000 Jews were killed and thousands sold into slavery. The Romans angrily renamed Israel "Syria Palaestina." Jews living there became known as Palestinians. During World War II, the British Army had a Palestinian Brigade made up entirely of Jewish volunteers. The Palestinian Symphony Orchestra was all Jewish, and The Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper. In 1948, Arabs who had fled from Israel (attacking Arab nations had broadcast, "All Arabs get out") began to claim they were the true Palestinians and that the land of Israel had always belonged to them. World media eagerly promotes that lie. Yet in 1948, Arabs owned a mere 3 percent of so-called Palestine.

Israel's claim to the land goes back 4,000 years to Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah in Hebron. There Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried. In Hebron David was crowned king. This sacred Jewish site has no relationship to Arabs or Muslims. Yet Muslims claim Hebron as their own, built a mosque to keep Jews and Christians from visiting the cave, and are determined to drive out every Jewish resident.

For 3,000 years Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. Temple Mount on the summit of Mount Moriah is the heart of Jerusalem. This 35-acre parcel arouses such explosive passions that it could trigger World War III at any time. This is where Abraham built an altar to offer his son Isaac to God. That spot was purchased by King David from Ornan the Jebusite to build there an altar to God. There Solomon built the first temple. In its place now sits the Dome of the Rock, a monument to Islam's umbilical and irrational claim that Abraham offered, not Isaac, but Ishmael.

Perpetuating a Muslim lie, lkrema Sabri, mufti of Jerusalem, declared again early this August that the Temple Mount is Islamic and "not subject to negotiations." Given its 3,000-year Jewish history and importance to Christians, on what basis should Muslims control this site? That Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran exposes the lie of Islam's claim to any part of Jerusalem as a holy site.

Today we see the continuing fulfillment of Christ's remarkable prophecy that Jerusalem would be "trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Lk 21:24). UN Resolution 181 in 1947, supported by the Vatican, declared that Jerusalem must remain an international city. Israel's Knesset is there. But nations locate their embassies elsewhere in Israel. No other country is forbidden to decide its own capital! The European Union repeatedly says it "does not recognize Israel's sovereignty" over Jerusalem. By what right do Gentile nations claim Jerusalem as their international city?

In 1998, the Vatican's foreign minister called the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem "illegal occupation." In a papal bull on the Year 2000 Jubilee, John Paul II again rejected Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. In mid-February 2000, the Vatican signed an agreement with the PLO calling for "international guarantees" to keep Jerusalem under international control.

Muslim nations have spent billions since the Yom Kippur War for missiles carrying a variety of deadly warheads. These are not defensive weapons. They exist for one purpose: to rain death and destruction upon Israel, so that Muslims can possess the land God promised the Jews. The new borders imposed by the Oslo Accords (1993) allow Katyusha rockets to be moved to within deadly range of Israel's narrow heartland which holds 70 percent of the Jewish population, 80 percent of its industry, its only international airport and its most important-military installations.

As the '"peace process" continues, Arabs murder and torch the homes of fellow Arabs suspected of cooperating with Israel. Muslim terrorists who kill Jews are honored with streets and holidays named after them! Yet Israelis dream on of peace with those who have sworn to exterminate them! An ad in The Jerusalem Post for "The Jerusalem Heights Penthouses" reads, "As Close to Heaven as You Can Ever Get."

When will "the times of the Gentiles" end? Clearly, not until the Gentile nations are defeated at Armageddon. Just ahead lies "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7). The armies of the world, led by Antichrist, will be brought to Armageddon by the LORD to punish them for mistreatment of His people Israel (Ezk 38:16-18).

Comment by Pat Goltz:

I present this article for its factual content. The relating of these events to biblical prophecy disturb me for a number of reasons, the major one of which is that we don't know enough to say definitively that a particular event or series of events fulfills endtime biblical prophecy. The attempt to relate current events to biblical prophecy suffers from a number of problems. First of all, we are told in no uncertain terms that we will not know the time of Jesus' return to earth. If we were able to pinpoint current events as fulfilling specific prophecies, we would be able to figure out when Jesus will return. In the second place, it is not uncommon for people, such as Lindsey, to claim that they are interpreting the Bible literally with statements such as this: "the prophecy of people flying on wings of eagles really means they are flying in planes." This is NOT a literal interpretation. In the third place, such prognosticators have predicted some things that have not come to pass. Russia did NOT attack Israel directly at Armageddon during the time of the Soviet Union, as many predicted, but instead, dissolved in economic chaos. Russia presently does not have the capacity to attack as these people claim. The most obvious problem with such predictions is that even if Russia will attack, we are NOT told when. Finally, this bothers me because this kind of linking of current events to biblical prophecy is a hallmark of certain religious cults. When a person sets himself up to interpret the Bible in light of current events, that person is planting the seeds of a cult.

On the other side of the coin, we must never forget that the sole claim to Eretz Israel is the claim presented in the Bible. Aside from God's designation that this land belongs to the descendants of Isaac and Jacob, there is no valid claim, because the lands become just one more example of lands conquered and retained by others. Although the situation in Israel is highly political, and the events are political in nature, the underlying claim is biblical and religious. The descendants of Isaac and Jacob should never forget the source of the legitimacy of their claim to the land.