When you were a child, did you ever play “king of the hill”? That’s like what is being played out in the Middle East today. But it is not child’s play; it’s a deadly game with worldwide consequences.
War and peace, life and death hang in the balance of this contest for control of the Temple Mount. As we’ve seen, much blood has been shed in modern times over the Temple Mount feud. Things aren’t getting better, but worse, because neither the Islamics nor the Jews will follow what the true God said about the matter. All sides are determined to do what Psalms 2:1–3 says:
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
The United Nations, the European Union, the United States, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and everybody else are all determined to do what is right in their own eyes. This has always been fallen man’s fatal flaw. From the people before the Flood of Noah’s time, to Nimrod and the tower of Babel, to Israel’s decision not to take the land from the inhabitants at the time God directed it to do so, to Ehud Barak offering the Temple Mount to Arafat for the sake of peace—everybody has wanted to do it his or her own way, not God’s way. The result is that rather than things getting better and better, as the evolutionists tell us, things are getting worse and worse, as the Bible says: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). The Temple Mount in Jerusalem will continue to draw violence until Christ returns at the end of Armageddon.
War Workers
Looking at the issues of war and peace surrounding Jerusalem and Palestine in recent years, we notice an absence of all-out war. Some would call this a positive sign of improvement over the war woes of previous decades.
While there has been an absence of all-out war, however, no true observer of the Mideast situation can honestly proclaim that the region has had real peace. The fact is, the attempts to control the violence since the last major conflict—the Persian Gulf War—and the War on Terrorism following the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks of September 11, 2001 have acted like a pressure-cooker lid for the region. The Middle East is indeed a cauldron. Unfortunately, the false peace makers (the international community, including the U.S.) have been able to do nothing to do away with the causes of the trouble building between Israel and its aggressive Arab-Islamic radical neighbors. That’s because the problems are supernatural at their roots; they are satanic.
Threats of all-out war surrounding and involving Israel have been in the headlines for years. Most recently we think of Syria and the possibilities of war being ignited by the battle to oust Bashar Al Assad as the country’s dictator/president. Consider the tremendous dangers building within the Israeli/Iranian confrontation over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Added to this are the boiling anxieties and turmoil initiated when the Muslim Brotherhood, under the false promises of the Arab Spring eruptions, ousted Hosni Mubarak from Egyptian leadership. All the while, the many enemies surrounding the Jewish state remain resolute about erasing Israel from the map. As a matter of fact, maps used by many of the Arab nations have no references outlining or even mentioning Israel.
A time will come, the Bible says, when those who work to agitate for war will cause God’s anger to bring judgment: “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies” (Nahum 1:2). He will take vengeance on those who come against His people, to whom He gave the land of promise—which includes the Temple Mount.
Stormy Islamics
The storm of rage has been building since Israel no longer seems willing to give away land and other concessions with nothing given by Palestinian adversaries in return. There seems little Israel’s Palestinian enemies can now achieve by continuing with a negotiating process for a peace they don’t want anyway.
Up until the year 2000, Arafat and company had reason to come to the peace table and at least pretend an interest in peace. A steady stream of concessions flowed to them with little effort on their part. They finally got an Israeli-free territory, being allowed to have a Palestinian armed police force of more than thirty thousand.
Things changed once this was achieved. Arafat refused Barak’s seemingly insane offer of the Temple Mount and many other concessions. If Arafat had accepted Barak’s offer, many observers believe the PLO chairman would have been assassinated by his own people, as was Anwar Sadat following his peace treaty with Menachem Begin.
Most observers believed, also, that once the PLO and the Islamic radicals got all they could at the peace table, the hardball issues would have to be addressed—issues like border determinations, water rights, bringing Palestinian refugees back to disputed territories, the ultimate status of Samaria and Judea, and, of course, the sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Sovereignty over Jerusalem includes control of the Temple Mount and the authority to make arrangements for access to it. Corridors for pilgrims to the holy sites must be maintained. These corridors must be arranged so as not to cross opposition territory. For Israel’s foes in the region to accept a final settlement would mean the Islamic radicals would have no further claims. This they will never agree to accept.
The so-called Middle East peace process between Israel and the Muslim forces of the nations surrounding the tiny Jewish state has been ongoing for decades. These are Arab nations, and all contain fiery Islamist fanaticism that openly declares that Israel must be destroyed. John Loeffler, an observer/commentator of that peace process, frames, in an all-encompassing thought, the seeming hopelessness of the situation:
Everyone also realized that once the peace process played out, the Arabs would have no further incentive to remain at the negotiating table and behave themselves, leaving a new round of war(s) as the only remaining option. The act of accepting a final agreement would force the Arabs to relinquish any future claims on the Israeli state, its people, and the very existence of Israel itself. It would be final; the events begun in 1947–48 would be over. In the world’s eyes, the Arabs would lose all “legitimacy” for further struggle.[i]
Israeli Retaliations
No matter how vicious the attacks by the terrorists against the people of Israel, when that nation responds with force, the world news organizations and world community declare the response to be overreaction.
There are almost always sympathetic voices for the Palestinian aggressors who throw stones and Molotov cocktails, and even for those who fire with heavy-caliber weapons upon Israeli forces. It is amazing to watch as a bully attacks someone who is trying to live in peace, then hear an entirely different report on what you are witnessing. Instead of reporting that the fighting has been started by the Palestinian troublemakers, the world news reports invariably imply that Israeli forces brutalize their victims with overwhelming military power.
For example, on Sunday, May 30, 2010, a fleet of six flotillas set sail from Cyprus for the Gaza strip, carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid to the area. Included in that fleet was the Mavi Mara, a Turkish cruise liner chartered by IHH, a group that, in addition to performing humanitarian efforts, also supports radical Islamic terrorist networks, including Hamas.[ii] Israel and the Israeli navy gave numerous warnings to the fleet prior to setting sail, as well as during the journey. They also offered an alternative plan for the fleet to dock at Ashod, where cargo could be inspected and then transferred by land. The fleet defied these warnings and instead attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade.
The next day, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) decided to board the flotillas and force them to redirect to Ashod. Five were boarded without incident; however, when IDF soldiers attempted to board the Mavi Mara, they were met with violent attacks by Palestinian activists wielding clubs, knives, and a gun—with all of the activity supported by video evidence. IDF soldiers returned fire, killing nine activists. Seven IDF soldiers were also wounded.[iii]
The incident was characterized in nearly every major news network as a brutal attack on humanitarian aid workers by Israeli forces, provoking international condemnation. In September 2011, the United Nations published a report of its findings about the incident. The report exonerated Israel, but not without characterizing the incident as “excessive and unreasonable.”[iv] Again, nearly every major news headline emphasized the description “excessive and unreasonable” rather than highlighting the exoneration.
Israel is not without fault, of course. The Israeli military has no doubt been brutal at times in use of force. But, only in cases of defensive-oriented, preemptive action has Israel struck at its neighbors first.
Israel might be back in the land of promise in unbelief, but it seems to take the Lord at His word in the matter of self-defense. Considering the history of the nation’s hostile neighbors, heeding God’s advice has been very wise indeed!
