Impending Dangers for Israel
Tom's Perspectives
Dr. Thomas Ice
"Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured;
And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
And those who plunder you shall be for plunder,
And all who prey upon you I will give for prey.
For I will restore you to health
And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the Lord,
'Because they have called you an outcast, saying:
"'It is Zion; no one cares for her.'"
—Jeremiah 30:16–17
In the coming tribulation period, the nation of Israel will be abandoned by all of the Gentile nations and have nowhere to turn . . . nowhere except to the Lord. Only the Lord God of Israel will care for Zion. When this occurs in the tribulation, when Israel can only turn to the Lord, she will. It will be at that moment that the Lord will rescue His formerly wayward wife. However, today we see an ever-mounting number of threats on the horizon that threaten to wipe Israel off of the map. I have a prediction to make! Israel will not only survive but will renew her relationship with the Lord and become mightily used of Him in the days to come.
Danger Number One
The Nakba Day protests started with a bang and involved the breach of the Syrian border for the first time since the Yom Kipper War in 1973. The Arab observance of Nakba (means "disaster") Day is May 15th each year and occurs the day after the Israeli celebration of the day of their independence. On May 15, 2011 Arabs infiltrated the border of Israel in three places, on the Golan Heights from Syria, from Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip. In addition to that, there were major uprisings in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Jerusalem.
The Syrian border breach is seen as the biggest threat. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) was caught off guard as the protesters rammed a fence and poured into Israel. The Israeli town of Majdal Shams was overrun with refugees from Syria until the IDF was able to drive them back into Syria. At least four Arabs were killed and dozens wounded. At least another four Arabs were killed and eleven wounded as the IDF, who were prepared for the assault from Lebanon. These uprisings are feared by many within Israel as the beginning of a third intifada. There is no doubt that a full court press is being applied to Israel as they are pressuring them on many fronts.
Danger Number Two
As I write this article in the middle of May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be making an important trip to the U. S. A. and will include a meeting with the White House on May 20. President Obama is expected to give a speech on May 22 about Israel and the Middle East. This will be one day before Netanyahu is supposed to speak to about 10,000 people at the annual AIPAC meeting and lay out his vision for how Israel should move forward in light of so many developments. Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on May 23.
The concern is that Netanyahu will not stand his ground and will be bullied by the Obama administration and the State Department to give up part of the covenant Land of Israel to the Arabs. Bill Koenig, who covers the White House says, "The Orthodox Jewish leaders that I spoke to locally are very concerned that Netanyahu will sell out in Washington. They are very disappointed by his public endorsement and active pursuit of the two-state solution, which they believe was a violation of trust and even a "cave in" to U.S. pressure."[1] However, Netanyahu has thus far been unwavering in keeping Jerusalem under the control of Israel, but one wonders what the Obama administration, the United Nations, and the European Union have up their sleeve. "Many in the Jewish, Christian and Arab quarters of the Old City believe the Old City is going to eventually come under international control, via the United Nations, in future agreements"[2] according to Koenig.
Danger Number Three
Toward the end of May many Arab and Muslim nations will be sending to Gaza Flotilla number two in an effort to break Israel naval blockade surrounding Gaza. It has been kept a secret just when and from where the flotilla will be coming, but Flotilla I last year caused a great international incident when Israel interdicted the group of ships to make sure they were not smuggling into Gaza weapons and missiles in their fight against Israel. The world condemned Israel since they ended up killing a number of the terrorists on one of the boats as they brutally attacked the Israelis as they boarded their ship. There is not telling what will be in store when this flotilla arrives this year. When one contemplates the dangers fraught with this threat in concert with all the other anti-Israel events that are taking place, it will provide extra pressure on Israel in the eyes of the world at a time when so many other things threaten God's nation.
Danger Number Four
Samantha Power, a member of Obama's National Security Council, and considered the architect of the administration's intervention policy in Libya was described as follows by Stanley Kurtz:
who shares Noam Chomsky's foreign-policy goals? An influential presidential adviser whom 1960s revolutionary Tom Hayden treats as a fellow radical? A White House official who wrote a book aiming to turn an anti-American, anti-Israel, Marxist-inspired, world-government-loving United Nations bureaucrat into a popular hero? Samantha Power, senior director of multilateral affairs for the National Security Council and perhaps the principal architect of our current intervention in Libya, is all of these things.
These scary-sounding tidbits might be dismissed as isolated "gotchas." Unfortunately, when we view these radical outcroppings in the full sweep of her life's work, Samantha Power emerges as a patriot's nightmare—a woman determined to subordinate America's national sovereignty to an international order largely controlled by leftist bureaucrats. Superficially, Power's chief concern is to put a stop to genocide and "crimes against humanity." More deeply, her goal is to use our shared horror at the worst that human beings can do in order to institute an ever-broadening regime of redistributive transnational governance.[3]
Since Power believes that American military force should be used in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel, some analysts believe the real reason for American intervention in Libya was to set a president for eventual intervention against Israel in order to impose a solution to that conflict. This sets the stage for the next danger.
Danger Number Five
One of the biggest threats in years looms in September 2011 when it is expected that the Palestinians will unilaterally declare themselves to be a sovereign states with unilaterally declared borders. Over 130 of the 192 member states of the United Nations are expected to support the establishment of a Palestinian state if it is brought up for a vote by the General Assembly this coming September. Some believe it could go as high as 170 nations supporting such a declaration. What would or should Israel do if this were to occur? It would likely cause tremendous chaos throughout Israel and the Middle East, especially with Egypt and other countries in that area now under more radical control.
Some have advised Israel to make a unilateral declaration of their own countering the one made by the Palestinians with borders and territories that Israel would want to put into place. Some within Israel have advised the nation to accept the Palestinian declaration and turn the current conflict into a border war. However, if Palestine becomes a sovereign state in the eyes of the U. N., the U. S. A., and the E. U., which is likely, then any incursion into supposed Palestinian territory could lead to sanctions against Israel and the basis for military intervention as noted above by Samantha Power, President Obama's chief adviser on matters like this. Can you imagine the American military brought in to withstand Israel? Such a situation would create a disaster. I think a significant percentage of our troops would refuse to engage in such an assignment, thus, creating another issue.
Conclusion
Things are moving as fast as ever all over the world. In concert with developments relating to Israel, we see the move toward global governance gaining momentum in every way, every day. We see the ever-increasing merger of national economies into a global economic system paving the way for the Antichrist's temporary future rule. The European Union, which is likely preparation for the Antichrist's Revived Roman Empire, continues to trudge forward. The breath-taking decline of American Evangelical Christianity into apostasy, with no renewal in sight, continues to prepare the way for the false religion of the False Prophet and the Antichrist. We see unprecedented alliances developing between nations like Russian, Iran, and Turkey, who will one day attack Israel according to Ezekiel 38 and 39. All of these things coming together into alignment for the first time in history, as the world is being prepared for events that will explode into history after the occurrence of the rapture. For many, the world situation appears to be totally out of reach from God's influence, but such is not the case.
No matter how chaotic things appear, we know from God's Word that it is He who is in total control of the world. It is the Lord who allows fallen mankind to do their thing, build their kingdom before God intervenes and sets up His kingdom. The Bible teaches that God's Kingdom will be mediated through a Jewish carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth. God's Kingdom will be administered through saved Jewish people from the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. When we see the threats and trouble that Israel is in today, we can also be confident that the God of Israel will triumph in the long run. Israel will not be destroyed as their enemies hope instead she will prosper! Maranatha.
ENDNOTES
[1] Bill Koenig, "Koenig's Eye View from the White House" newsletter, May 13, 2011, www.watch.org.
[2] Koenig, newsletter, May 13, 2011.
[3] Stanley Kurtz, "Samantha Power's Power: On the ideology of an Obama adviser," National Review Online, April 5, 2011.