Some Brief Facts on the Israeli Conflict Today

Some Brief Facts on the Israeli Conflict Today

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in
1312 BC, two thousand (2000) years before the rise of
Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying
themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967,
two decades after the establishment of the modern
State of Israel (in 1948).

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews had
dominion over the land for one thousand (1000) years,
and have had a continuous presence in the land for the
past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion over the land since the
conquest in 635 lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish
capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any
Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians
occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their
capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit
Jerusalem.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach,
the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned
even once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed
never even came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their
backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees
were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders
promising to purge the land of Jews. No doubt the
Jews, and individual Jewish soldiers, made mistakes
during the war of Independence, and some Arab
Palestinians suffered hardships. But it was war, and
the fact is sixty-eight percent of the Arab refugees
left (many in fear of retaliation by their own
brethren, the Arabs), without ever seeing an Israeli
soldier. The Arabs who stayed were afforded the same
peace, civil rights and citizenship in the new State
of Israel as everyone else.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab
countries (Jordan, Syria, Egypt ...) due to Arab
brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in
1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of
Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the
same or only slightly higher.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or
integrated into the Arab countries to which they fled
(Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt), despite the vast Arab
territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World
War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world
that has never been absorbed or integrated into their
own people's lands. The Jewish refugees, on the
contrary, were completely absorbed into Israel, a
country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are
represented by eight separate nations in the Middle
East, not including the Palestinians. There is only
one Jewish nation.

14. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost.
Israel defended itself each time and won.

15. The PLO and Hamas Charters still calls for the
destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given
the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy
under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied
them.

16. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were
desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places
of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and
Christian sites have been preserved and made
accessible to people of all faiths.

17. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175
Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97
were directed against Israel.

18. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on
before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

19. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues
were destroyed by the Jordanians in the period
1948-1967.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians
systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery
on the Mount of Olives, and while the Jordanians
enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews
from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

These are incredible times.

St. Paul warned that the end times would be a time of
deceit and lies (see eg. 2 Thessalonians 2). Who can
deny that we are living in those days? We don't have
to agree with or condone everything that Jews or
Israel do. And we do have to recognize the miserable
plight of the Palestinian refugees. But our attitude
towards both the Jews and Arabs MUST at all costs be
based on the truth. Without the truth, our supposed
love will be misplaced.

What will we tell our grandchildren about what we did
when there was a turning point in Jewish destiny, and
we had an opportunity to make a difference?

Source: http://tinyurl.com/6v6ylpe.

Ed. Note: God promised the ancient Israelites to give
them the land of Israel in perpetuity. As the Bible
says, "Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and
Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will
make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the
sky and I will give your descendants all this land I
promised them, and it will be their inheritance
forever'" (Exodus 32:13, NIV).

In speaking about the land of Israel, God said to
Abraham, the father of the Israelites: "I will make
you a great nation; I will bless you and make your
name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses
you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed" (Genesis 12:2-3, NKJV).

And again, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May
those who love you be secure. May there be peace
within your walls and security within your citadels'"
(Psalm 122:6-7, NIV). Let us make sure we hear this
Word of God.