Tony Pearce: “Is Israel Heading for Civil War?”

LTRP Note: Tony Pearce is the author of a number of Lighthouse booklets and his book The Messiah Factor. He is the founder and director of Light for the Last Days and provides well-written, well-researched articles and materials regarding Israel and the last days.

By Tony Pearce
Light for the Last Days

Israel’s opposition has held a number of large scale demonstrations against the government, involving up to 500,000 people. Israelis were shocked by the hatred expressed at these rallies, especially when prominent figures, including opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, began openly calling for civil disobedience. Some extremists even encouraged armed violence and the assassination of Prime Minister Netanyahu. This reaction to the new religious right-wing government and its proposed policies has shed a light on just how deep the rifts in Israeli society run. This is a new dimension to the strife within Israel, as Jew turns against Jew, adding to the tensions within the land caused by the conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

One of the main issues that has roused this anger is the government’s plan to reform Israel’s Supreme Court, the highest court in Israel. The proposed changes include limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down laws passed by the Knesset. This would alter the relationship between the Attorney General and the government, as well as changing the process by which judges are selected.

The left sees this as an attack on Israeli democracy, whereas the right sees it as a defence of the ability of the democratically elected government to get its laws passed in the parliament. The right claims there is a built in left wing bias in the Supreme Court as presently constituted which it wants to change. There are other areas in Israeli society where liberal left wing opinion is dominant, particularly in education and the media. This encourages liberal views on sex and sexuality, now expressed in the strong LGBT influence in Israeli society. The right wing of the current Israeli government wants to change this, comparing it to the Hellenisation process (the adoption of Greek / Gentile culture and life style which corrupted the Jews in the days of the Maccabees in around 170BC). They could also point out that idolatry and sexual immorality led to the collapse of Israel in Bible times.

The conflict has become so bitter that there is talk of civil war. Former Mossad director Tamir Pardo says “the country is on the verge of collapse.” He said “The current leadership is tearing us apart from within, bringing the state to the verge of extinction.” Knesset Law Committee chair, Simcha Rothman, appealed to the opposition to stop the unrest, saying, “You are burning a country in vain, you are boycotting an elected government in vain.”

Israel’s internal crisis is encouraging its enemies. Arab media around the Middle East now say it is time to pressure Israel, while it is vulnerable due to internal strife. In particular they have noted that that “soldiers have announced that they will not participate in military training,” and that fighter pilots in the Israeli Air Force have refused military service. This poses serious damage to the Israeli security system and especially to the Air Force, which plays key roles in Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said that Zionism is bound to collapse on itself.

Unrest in the West Bank is growing with fears of confrontations being planned by Hamas against Israeli targets during Ramadan. The US Biden administration has planned an initiative to deal with this unrest which involves taking 5000 Palestinians to Jordan to receive commando training as security personnel, then returning them to PA controlled areas in order to combat terrorism emanating from Arab towns in the West Bank. Under this plan, the Israel Defence Forces would be restricted in their ability to pursue terrorists operating out of this area. Since these forces would be under the authority of the Palestinian Authority, who support terrorism against Israel, this would be disastrous for Israel’s security. 27% of Palestinians support the concept of the two-state solution which the West is holding up as the answer to the problem. 71% oppose it, supporting an armed struggle leading to the destruction of Israel. In the light of this, it is time for Israel to stop this madness and unite in the face of those who seek the destruction of the Jewish state.

Israel Today comments on this situation:

Talk of “civil war” is headlining nearly every media broadcast in Israel these days. And while it might have started as mere political rhetoric, some fear it could soon become a reality. The Jewish people are no strangers to civil war. Internal strife has torn Israel in two and led to its downfall more than once in the nation’s long history:

• During the times of the biblical judges, the Tribes of Israel fought numerous times against one another.
• Following the death of King Solomon, the nation was plunged into civil war resulting in its political division into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
• During the time of the Hasmoneans, a civil war resulted in the Kingdom of Judah effectively being absorbed into the Roman Empire.
• Internal strife between competing factions during the Great Jewish Revolt (66-70CE) crippled Israel’s ability to fight the Romans and resulted in the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

What was the reason for the destruction of the Second Temple?

The issue of the destruction of the Second Temple mentioned here is an interesting one. This event happened when the Jews rebelled against Roman occupation, beginning in 66CE. To begin with they succeeded in forcing back the Romans, but when the Romans regrouped under Titus, they besieged Jerusalem and eventually took control, destroying the temple and much of the city in 70CE. Different Jewish factions ended up fighting each other, giving rise to the rabbinic explanation for this calamity as “sinat achim” (hatred of the brethren), which allowed the Romans to come in and destroy the city and the temple.

Jesus gives a different explanation in His prophecy of the coming fall of Jerusalem given around 40 years before the event happened. Luke 19:41- 44:

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

In His words, the coming catastrophe is because “thou knewest not the time of thy visitation,” meaning you did not understand that Yeshua/Jesus is the Messiah visiting His people. In other words, God allowed this calamity to happen because of the rejection of Jesus’ claim to be Messiah by the Jewish religious leadership.

The prophecy of Daniel 9 focuses on the Messiah coming before the destruction of the Second Temple. This will be followed by a period of war and the “desolations” of Jerusalem.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)

Jesus prophesied this event in Luke 21:20-24:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

This literally happened in 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans and the great dispersion of the Jewish people to the nations of the world began. But it was not to be a permanent situation. There would be a return to the land of Israel, beginning with the restoration of the State of Israel in 1948. This began the process of returning Jerusalem to Jewish rule, no longer “trampled by Gentiles” or under the control of non-Jewish powers. The process is not yet complete but will be totally fulfilled when the Messiah returns to take up His rule from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-4; Zechariah 14; Revelation 20).

We should also note that at the time of Jesus’ first coming, by no means all Jews rejected Him. The Gospels record that “the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37), that large crowds hailed Him as the Son of David/Messiah (Matthew 21, Luke 19), and that even many of the Pharisees believed in Him (John 3, John 12:42, Acts 15:5, 21:20). The early church was made up of Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus, and the disciples who spread the message to the Gentiles were all Jewish. The New Testament was written by Jews and contains a message of God’s love for His people Israel and desire for their salvation (Romans 9-11).

As we approach the end of this age and the second coming of the Messiah, the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is a major event fulfilling biblical prophecy. God’s goal for the Jewish people is a return to Himself through the Messiah Yeshua/Jesus who fulfilled the prophecies of the suffering servant Messiah (Isaiah 53). The same Messiah is coming again to save Israel and the world from destruction and set up His Messianic kingdom (Isaiah 2, Revelation 19-20).

As we see the strife within Israel, neither the left wing nor the right wing, neither the secular nor the religious, but only Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, can resolve it. As we approach the days of trouble that will precede His return, the only answer for Israel is to repent and turn to the Messiah:

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)

This prophecy speaks of one who has been pierced, died by crucifixion, wounded for our transgressions, upon whom the Lord laid “the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). He is Yeshua the Messiah who will return to save His people and bring peace and safety to Israel and the world.

For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. (Isaiah 62:1)

---

(Photo taken from Wikipedia; used with permission from AVRAM GRAICER (taken in 2009); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)