Old Town Jerusalem (Photo: bigstockphoto.com; used with permission
By Tony Pearce
Light For the Last Days Ministries (UK)
From the Winter 2015 Light for the Last Days Newsletter. Used with permission.
Israel is in the grip of a terror offensive as Palestinians have been attacking Israelis with knives and driving their cars at them. Between September 13 and November 30, 2015, 22 Israelis were killed and 215 wounded.
The attacks began after false accusations that Israel was defiling the Al Aqsa Mosque (on the site of the former Jewish Temple in Jerusalem). Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been telling his people that Israel was planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and “change the Arab and Islamic character and identity” of Jerusalem. He condemned Jews for “defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Radical Islamist and terrorist elements are calling on Palestinian youth to murder Jews. Statements by Fatah and Hamas have described the attacks as “heroic actions” and “the natural response to Israel”s crimes.”
All of the makes the possibility of a “peace settlement” even more remote. According to a recent poll, the majority of Palestinians don’t want a “two state solution” as proposed by the US, EU, and UN. They want a new “intifada” to replace the whole of Israel with a Palestinian state — preferably, one that now would be ruled by Hamas and jihadi organizations such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. Their problem is not with “settlements” or “poor living conditions” but with Israel’s existence. A majority believes that Israel can —and should —be destroyed.
After the Paris attacks, Netanyahu said:
“The time has come for countries to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world.”
However, most of the world does not condemn terrorism against Israel but often supports it and turns its condemnation on Israel. In fact, the French government pays millions of Euros every year to Palestinian NGOs whose stated goal is to destroy Israel, thus helping to finance the radicalization of Palestinian society. Just two days before the Paris attacks, Netanyahu took the European Union to task for setting new guidelines for special labelling of goods produced by Israelis in the West Bank, Golan Heights and Jerusalem, which is widely viewed in Israel as a precursor to an economic boycott of Israel. He said:
“The EU has decided to label only Israel, and we are not prepared to accept the fact that Europe is labelling the side that is being attacked by terrorism.”
The world generally does not care about what happens to Israel and sides with those seeking to destroy her. But the Lord does care. Jeremiah prophesied a time when Israel will hear “a voice of trembling, of fear and not of peace.” This is the time of Jacob’s trouble, “but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30.4-7).
At this time the Lord says:
“For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, because they have called you an outcast saying, ‘It is Zion for whom no one cares.”(Jeremiah 30.17)
Related Articles:
Remembering the Holocaust – Who Really Killed Jesus? by Tony Pearce
No Peace – No Messiah by Tony Pearce
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