ISRAEL OR PALESTINE: ~~~OR BOTH?

ISRAEL OR PALESTINE:

OR BOTH?

Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!

Please accept my apologies in advance if you were expecting the continuation
of our series on Heaven today. We will continue with that series shortly,
but because of the fact that Israel is so much in the news today, and Israel
plays such an important in America's existence, and defense in the Middle
East, I wanted to take a break and do a piece or two on this nation.
Obama's speech yesterday has really triggered a huge outcry internationally,
as well as among the overwhelming majority of Americans.

Back in February of 2005, I published an article (not a part of the Coffee
Break series) with the same name as this Coffee Break article in response to
a note from one of my readers questioning why the U.S. has continually
supported Israel since its reemergence as a state in May 1948. Following is
an updated and amplified version of that response.

One reason our nation has been such a strong supporter of Israel is because
of scriptures like Psalm 122:6: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall
prosper that love thee." David later sang (Psalm 137:5-6), "If I forget
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not
remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not
Jerusalem above my chief joy."

There are a multitude of other scriptures that are similar to this, but the
theme is the same: those who bless, who pray for, who support Israel will
likewise prosper and receive the blessings of God.

Our nation has long recognized that it has a responsibility to be an
undergirding for Israel. America was founded upon the fundamental freedom
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, to honor Him, and to be obedient to His
word and will. Because the support of Israel is such a recurring theme
throughout Scripture, God's people have long recognized their
responsibilities. Our nation's leaders have historically supported Israel.

I know there are those who believe that our support of Israel and our
generous financial assistance is a violation of our Constitution, but this
is a case where a higher law prevails than that of the Constitution. I am -
by just about every rule one can muster - a Constitutionalist. I genuinely
believe our nation needs to return to its Constitutional foundations.

There is a higher law, however, that our forefathers all recognized when
this nation was founded: God's Law. That Law will and must always be the
ultimate force that guides this nation's policies, and if some believe that
it conflicts with our nation's Constitution, then the higher law must
prevail. I'm not talking about religion or the mythical separation of
church and state. I'm talking about the universal laws that God has set in
place that no nation can disregard without consequences. That said, let me
get on with this discussion.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, they have always had a land of
their own. (Note: I use the term, "Palestinians, " really only for
reference's sake in this article since they've never been known that way
historically. ) They simply chose to abandon it and lay claim to Israel.
Look at the history of the Palestinians. They have for centuries lived in
Jordan, occupying a majority of that country. Never has there been a
mandate from God to take the land of Israel away from the Jews and give it
to the Palestinians. The fact that the Jews were carried away into
captivity because of their disobedience to God did not somehow change God's
mind concerning the land. In fact, through His prophets, He promised the
Jews that He would return them to their homeland and restore all of it to
them.

If you study the history of many of the Palestinians, they are descended
from the Philistines, the Amorites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, etc.:
nations who lost their birthright and land because of God's judgment upon
them. They have no spiritual, moral, ethical or legal right to claim lands
and territories in this present day under the premise that they lived there
before Israel was once again declared a nation. They were interlopers,
squatters who seized and occupied lands and territories they were never
entitled to. They got away with it for a long time, too, because there was
no one to challenge their occupancy.

For the sake of a little current history, let me take a minute to quote a
portion of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint-session of both houses of
Congress, scheduled for next Monday. (I am pleased to have an advance copy
of that speech as it has appeared in Arutz Sheva, the Israeli National
News.)

On November 2, 1917, Lord Arthur James Balfour, Foreign Secretary and past
Prime Minister of Great Britain, issued the famous Balfour Declaration, that
posits the founding of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of
Israel. Its authors were referring to the Biblical borders of Israel, with
whose boundaries the English people were familiar from studying the Holy
Book, that land which lay on both sides of the Jordan River, extending from
the northernmost Golan Heights to Aqaba in the south, close to 116 thousand
square kilometers.

In 1920, the San Remo International Conference confirmed the Balfour
Declaration and gave Britain the mandate over both sides of the Jordan
River. King Feisal of Iraq, in the name of the Arab delegation to the 1919
peace conference after WWI, wrote: "Our delegation here in Paris are fully
aware of the suggestions the Zionist Federation made to the peace
conference. In our eyes they are modest and fitting, and we will do our best
to have them accepted. We will welcome the Jews warmly when they come home.

Two years later, the eastern bank of the Jordan, an area of about 90,000
square kilometers, was separated and closed to Jewish immigration. What
remained for the Jews was the west bank of the Jordan, an area of only
26,000 square kilometers. The decision to hand over the land east of the
Jordan to the head of the Saudi royal family was decided on by Great Britain
for political ends.

The plan to partition the land of Israel west of the Jordan River, as
suggested by the Peel Committee in 1936, was called "a midget-sized Jewish
country", by revisionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky, in his 1937 speech before
Parliament. The heads of Jewish settlement in Israel declared that even if
the Jews are forced to accept the partition against their will, they see it
as a temporary solution. Chaim Weizmann, later Israel's first president,
said: "This is an arrangement that can last 25-30 years", and David Ben
Gurion, later to be Israel's first Prime Minister, reacted: "I see our
future as cancelling the partition, once we have become secure in our
state".

In 1947, the United Nations Assembly ratified the Partition Plan, a decision
that led to the declaration of the state of Israel on the tiny bit of land
left for the Jewish homeland. Our capital, Jerusalem, was divided in two,
and her heart, the site of our Holy Temples, was outside our borders. All
the parts of Israel that had been clearly promised to us by God were also
outside these borders.

The Arabs never accepted the Partition Plan and, led by Amin El Huseini
continued their terror attacks against the Jewish people. Huseini met with
Hitler in Berlin at the height of WWII in order to plan the extermination of
the Jews in Israel and the east.

Immediately after the declaration of Israel's independence on May 15, 1948,
the armies of 7 Arab states invaded the fledgling country to attempt to
murder all its Jewish residents. For the next 19 years, we lived while
paying for our existence in unending bloodshed. In the War of Independence
alone, 6000 soldiers and civilians were killed, that was 1% of the
population at the time. God helped us defeat our enemies and we succeeded in
building a wonderful country despite its narrow borders and their
limitations.

Then began the infamous announcements of President Nasser of Egypt in 1967,
who, together with Syria's ruler Hafez el Assad, and Jordan's King Hussein,
decided to invade tiny Israel and wipe it off the map. Israel's boundaries
were the indefensible Green Line, called "Auschwitz Borders" by then-Foreign
Minister Abba Eban. In the June 1967 war that ensued, the state of Israel
and its heroic soldiers, defeated Egypt in six days and freed the remaining
sections of Israel on the west of the Jordan River.

Prime Minister Netanyahu very clearly enunciates a fair portion of Israel's
modern history in his speech as he lays the groundwork for explaining why
Israel cannot, must not and will not ever return to its pre-1967 borders.

There are emotional human issues here, of course. Palestinian squatters who
had occupied the land prior to Israel's statehood in 1948 (I'll discuss this
issue in our next Coffee Break) fled to Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia
under false promises by Arab leaders that they would one day be given "the
right of return" to their previous homes "when the Zionists are eradicated."
Those leaders had no legal mandate for such promises and created an
unrealistic expectancy among the "refugees."

So what do you do with the families who left? From a political standpoint
one cannot simply displace the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who
have continued to live in Israel and those who scattered throughout the
region. That doesn't mean they need to be granted separate statehood. They
can choose to live under the democratic rule of Israel, prosper and live in
peace, or they can choose to return to Jordan where their forebears have
lived in throughout many past generations - a very real option. Jordan's
King Abdullah said in a recent speech, "We are Palestine!" During the
uprisings of the last couple of months, he extended an offer to PLO leader
Mahmoud Abbas to join him in a shared government. Abbas refused, sticking
to his demand for a separate Palestinian state at the cost of Israel's
existence.

Historically, the present-day Palestinians are an amalgamation of many
tribes once scattered throughout the region. There never has been a
political entity -a state, if you will - recognized by the world as the
nation of Palestine. Israel and much of the region was called Palestine for
a time under British occupation, but there was no nation or state of
Palestine as such. Click on the following link to take a look at the modern
history of the area as it appeared under British Occupation from 1882 -
1914):

http://www.omegaletter.com/images/articles/2010/mainmapottoman.gif

Palestine was so called under a British mandate in or around 1900 and
consisted of most of the historical land of Israel. In 1922, changes were
implemented by the League of Nations which declared a "land of Israel"
encompassing all of the land west of the Jordan River, the Negev, all of the
Golan and southern portions of what have since become Syria. A UN
resolution took more land in 1947, and in 1948 -- less than 50 years after
the British mandate, the United Nations agreed that Israel should once again
become a sovereign nation.

To be sure, many of the Palestinians who occupied the land saw their homes
and properties taken away from them and destroyed by the incoming Jews who
were Holocaust survivors. It isn't hard to feel compassion for them and to
want to do something to redress their grievances. That said, however, it
still remains that they were the interlopers, occupying land that they would
one day have to leave. That day has come.

Palestinians have the opportunity to live within an Israeli state (my
opinion), vote and become democratic citizens of that nation and enjoy the
benefits of democracy, or they can continue to shout their spurious claims
of their rights to the land, continue to commit murder and ultimately be
destroyed as a people. The creation of a Palestinian state is a political
decision, but it is one that cannot last. The so-called Palestinian people
have been at war with the Jews for 3500 years, and to think they will
suddenly live in peace and harmony as neighbors in the 21st century simply
by having their own state is a demonic fantasy.

It isn't hard to applaud those who want to try and make it work, but unless
there is radical change in the spirit of the people and the spirit of the
land, we will ultimately see a battle to the finish and the extinction of
the Palestinians. Psalm 83 is a perfect picture of the end of this
conflict. I won't take the time today to fully explore the prophecy
contained in this Psalm; but briefly, you have a description of ten
neighboring nations or tribes who make a decision against Israel saying,
"Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel
may be no more in remembrance. "

The prayer of Asaph ends like this: "Let them be confounded and troubled for
ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that
Thou, whose Name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth."

We know from the prophetic utterances of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Zechariah (and many others) that the promise of God is the elevation of
Israel in the earth and the restoration of its entire homeland - that same
homeland that God promised to Abraham!

Consider the portion of the covenant that God made with Abraham concerning
the land He would give to the covenant-seed of Abraham:

"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed
have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the
river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And
the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and
the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (Genesis 15:18-21)

See that? "From the river of Egypt (the Nile River) unto the great river,
the river Euphrates!" Wow!! Stop and think about what that encompasses.
That takes in a good chunk of what today is eastern Egypt, the entire Sinai
Peninsula, all (of course) of modern Israel (including all of the "West
Bank"), the Gaza, the southern portion of Lebanon, much of eastern Syria,
and a large portion of western Jordan (which is 70% occupied by people who
call themselves "Palestinians. ")

Not since the days of David and Solomon has Israel occupied the majority of
the land God promised to them "for an everlasting possession" (Genesis
17:8). Their sin against God caused them to be carried away into captivity,
and they never have fully occupied their promised possession. However,
God's promises don't go away, and the promise of this land to Abraham's seed
still stands. Furthermore, with Israel going in captivity, the Lord sent
Jeremiah to them to say:

"They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day
that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore
them to this place."

Prophecies abound throughout the O.T. in which the Lord promises to restore
Israel to her inheritance. Even before Israel first entered into the
Promised Land, the Lord warned them what would happen to them as a nation if
they departed from His commandments. Yet in the warning also came the mercy
of God as He promised that He would return them to their promised heritage.
(See Deuteronomy 30:4-8)

"If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence
will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And
the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed,
and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above
thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart
of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, that thou mayest live. And the LORD thy God will put all these curses
(See Deuteronomy 28:15-68) upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee,
which persecuted thee. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the
LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day."

That, folks, is the future of Israel and the future of all their enemies.
Israel will - whether it happens this year, next year or even a few years
from now - most certainly occupy the whole land of its inheritance. Those
nations which have determined the eradication of Israel from the map already
have a curse upon them, and their doom has already been prepared by the Lord
as a part of the justice and judgment under His covenant with Abraham. If
the Palestinians continue to choose a path of destruction against Israel,
they as a nation and a people (if we can call them that) will be obliterated
from the face of the earth.

A word of caution, however! There are folks classified as "Palestinian" who
absolutely love the Lord. There are Palestinians - a huge number, in fact -
who prefer to live as Israelis and Israeli citizens in the peace and
prosperity Israel has granted. They have chosen to bless Israel rather than
curse it, and for that reason, they are exempt from the destruction and
curses to come upon those who have set themselves against God's covenant.

There's a lot more to say on this topic; and I can't really do justice to
this in a single Coffee Break. In our next discussion, let's take up
ISRAEL'S LEGAL STATUS, granted to it under the 1922 League of Nations
charter.

See you in a few days.

As Christians we have a mandate from the Lord to bless Israel. More than
that, the cry of the Lord through Isaiah is to "give Him no rest, till He
establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth!"

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 515-0133

All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but
authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in
part, is granted - provided proper attribution and this notice are included
intact. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at
http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at
http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com
Coffee Break articles are normally published weekly.

If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email,
please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com
CapenerMinistries@embarqmail.com .
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to
participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please
contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit
http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org http://www.CapenerMinistries.com .