How much more?

“And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.” (Deut. 8:8 KJV)

For centuries, this has been the prayer of the Jewish people! It is enshrined in the prayer book as a part of the “grace after meals” prayer. This tradition, of thanking God for the land of Israel goes way back in time to long before Islam even became a religion. What many people don’t know about this conflict is that it is, in actual fact, a continuation of the War of Independence of the Jewish people to have an established “homeland” in the biblical lands of their ancestors, according to the “British Mandate for Palestinian” developed after WWI.

The history is clear for anyone wanting to be a student of it! For example: Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E., the Jews have had dominion over this land for 1,000 years, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. The only Arab dominion since the Arab conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. And as it relates to Jerusalem, this city has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity.

The Jordanians, when they occupied Jerusalem during the War of Independence in 1948-9, never sought to make it their capital. Also, Arab leaders did not even come to visit Jerusalem as an important religious site. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Bible, whereas this city is not mentioned even one time in the Koran. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed is not mentioned, explicitly, as coming to Jerusalem to visit (there is only a dream-vision of Mohammed visiting a so-called “further Mosque,” and a later tradition which claims that this site was at Jerusalem).

These “disputed territories” that were occupied by the country of Jordan in the War of Independence are biblical Judea, Samaria and Gaza – which the U.N. decided to have Israel “administer” after Israel won the ’67 war started against them by Egypt and later joined by Jordan. All during that time of “forced occupation” by Jordan (from 1948 to 1967) the so-called Palestinian people living in these “occupied lands” had never decided that they needed their own country and that they were an independent people-nation from Jordan. Later, the Israeli government agreed (under pressure and assurances from the U.S.) to settle the status of this land, and the hostile people living upon it, thru “diplomatic negotiations.” And the Intifada, which started last fall after negotiations failed at Camp David last summer, is a totally unjust and unwarranted “terrorist war” with a totally different agenda.

So, the dirty little secret is that radical Islam has never really accepted a Jewish state within the midst of the Middle East Arab-Moslem nations. Just one proof for this is that the Arab Press is now claiming that the people killed in this week’s suicide bombing in West Jerusalem were “settlers” (i.e., a code word meaning Jews illegally settled on their, Palestinian, land). Some are expecting the next escalation in this terrorist war will be Israeli Christians (later Americans), who will be murdered as perceived collaborators with the Israeli enemy.

Palestinian Media Watch has just published (August 3rd) a report on the latest incitement (on Palestinian TV) to violence and the murder of Israelis:

I heard a youth say, “Oh, Sheikh, I am now 14 years old. I have 4 more years and then I will go to blow myself up among Allah’s enemies, I will blow myself up among the Jews.” I said to him, “Allah should let you merit Martyrdom and let me merit Martyrdom” …

All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers.

Allah shall make the Moslem rule over the Jew, we will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya in the righteousness of Allah against this rif-raff, we will fight against them and rule over them until the Jew will hide behind the trees and stones and the tree and stone will say: “Moslem! Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him!”

We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors, we are certain that the victory is quickly coming … as we bless anyone who rises against a soldier, we bless all those who educate their children to Jihad and to Martyrdom, blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew …

On the other hand, in a newsletter from the American Jewish Congress called INSIDE ISRAEL, the following was recently reported:

CNN, BBC and the New York Times naturally cover the violence so viewers and readers somehow miss out on what is happening on the beaches and in the countryside, as well as in the theaters and cinemas … what is amazing is the seeming normality of life in Tel Aviv and even in Jerusalem. Despite 10 blood-drenched months, there is a bizarre normality of everyday life. Roadside shootings, bus bombings and explosives hidden in watermelons and beer bottles create apprehension and fear. Nevertheless, with terror and death lurking in the background, people go on with their lives. Tourists may not be coming to visit, but Israelis go about their lives in an eerie normal manner.

And why should normal life not go on, as normal? The Jewish people have every moral, legal, ethical, and spiritual right to their “religious beliefs” (i.e., free from inquisitions, attempts at genocide and the current intifada), and to be safe and secure in their own land like any other Western democracy.

And God, Himself, will ultimately be their salvation from this religious and terrorist war, which is determined to prevent “Judaism” from flourishing within the heart of the Middle East! As it says so well in the prophetic word “… not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts.” (Zech 4:6 KJV).