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That is one reason why there is no solution to the Middle-Eastern crisis, as ugly as sin, as inveterate as an alcoholic, as deep as Loch Ness, and with a real monster, treble unbelief.

The Roman, Islamic and Judaistic errors (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms30) do not adorn the situation.

The Islamic concept of "The Catastrophe" that the Jewish people got so small a portion of their homeland as promised (by Balfour Declaration confirmed in the international post-World War I agreement), and they most of it (in fact), is strange. The Jewish concept that Christ is not to be received as the Messiah is equally unfortunate. Both fail to deal with the facts (cf. SMR
Appendix C, Ch. 6, Ch. 9 and Ch. 1). Facts when ignored yield no 'final' resolution. Despite cures, alcoholism continues where the heart seeks it. It is not alone.

Is it then objectively, a catastrophe that Allah does not rule all the Middle East ? or that his religion does not act in Israel as in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia (which took exception to US worship services when the troops were helping them), Egypt (where the Islamic presence may be less, but is vast), Morocco or Algeria, as in Armenia or Georgia, or Syria, or Jordan ? ... in some more, in some less, in all substantially! Is it a cause of suffering of the psyche, that the Jews have a piece of their territory so slim that its non-conquest is a continuing MIRACLE, for the powers, the presidents, the wealth, the lands against them are numerous as seen in the Teheran Conference of 1991, and last year in the Arab Summit, promising aid to the Palestinians, backed by money, which means means of war! And war IS mean when it is in a flurry of hope and desire and demand and confusion, as here.

Is it really a catastrophe, one warranting the severance of Jewish children in bombs of enormity, set off in aid of some religion, which wants land despite enormous tracts of it already Arab, and despite the fact that they already have grabbed, in Jordan and elsewhere, most of the Palestine promised to Israel!

• In this general historical area, see:

Divine Agenda Ch. 8, News 133,
Little Things Ch. 4,
It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls... Ch. 10, and Ch. 1, esp. the last.
 
• The facts can be astonishing, intriguing, and a good supply is needful!

Is it some kind of insanity which is so insatiable, or merely world conquest for Islam, that all may duly submit to this non-Jewish religion, a spurious dynamic in contradiction of Christ, predicted in the Bible, to be seen as one of the false prophet episodes without warrant, verification or rational ground, constructing a false Christ with false and variable attributions some 5 or 6 centuries after the event! (Cf. SMR pp. 989ff..)

In biblical terms, it is such, spiritually speaking (Hosea 9:7, Jeremiah 23). It is a possession with desire for possessiveness. It begins in a false notion of deity and ends in blood.

It continues, though much blood is spent. This is no part of a rationale for Israeli actions; for though many of them appear eminently reasonable, no nation on earth is sinless, or anything remotely like it, let alone one still formally in rebellion against its own Messiah (as in SMR Ch. 9). It is however an exposure of a blood-spilling feat which is gross in proportion wrought on a punished people, who have lost half of their number in the last war, on the part of nations, some of which did not even exist until the last century as they now do, made rich with oil, and refusing to a diminished Israel that it be any part of a home for Jews.

Now and again there is some remission of invective; sometimes it is possible for Israel to exist, but the "catastrophe" so much vaunted in 2001 as the Independence Day for Israel, the May day commemorating its founding after the catastrophic follies wrought against the Jewish people in World War II, this remains. For the Arab approach, it appears that it is not May day, but mayday!
 

• When one's existence is a catastrophe, it is apparent that it is not desired!

When what is desired is expressed in illegitimate, unfeeling ferocity in civilian bombs, indiscriminate, blood-thirsty, disdaining youth, ignoring infancy, taking the human race in its Jewish component as subjects for systematic murder, while existing in part of the tiny State, it is apparent that this irruptive scenario will call for divine action. Using the young as a shield, as aggressors does not help, but rather harms the Arab assaults, since this is to brutalise their own young, on the front line of what is becoming in significant measure, a civilian war! It brings back memories of Iran and its young, very young, soldiers, with plastic keys to paradise, according to earlier report.

No warning is heeded. The feats of 1948 and 1967, of 1973 and 1991 flow from the Arab conscience, it seems, like rain on corrugated iron. It is directed downwards, and flows there, and then it continues, on and on.
 
 

With the IRA 'feats' to follow, this is the new look for violence. If you cannot win a war, win by invading the super-markets, killing as on a spree, and blame God for your works, doing them in His name. Will He look on in vain ? Is HE not committed as in Deuteronomy 32 to taking action when the strength of the returned Jewish people is gone (32:36-42). " I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood..." He announces of this brink of the end piece of destiny. We have followed these things in detail frequently (cf. SMR Ch. 9, Appendix A, Galloping Events Chs.  1 ,  4 and  8, Divine Agenda Ch. 8, It Bubbles, Howls, He Calls). They do not change. It is written. It happens. It is inseparable, the nexus between the word of God and the works of God, exhibited here in contemporary history for us, the most privileged generation in this, that one could imagine!

If then Syria as has been reported, notes that it justifies Hezbollah's violence, then this is, if not a declaration of war on the tiny State surrounded by wolves as it might appear, what is ? If the wholesale devastation of your civilians, in a tiny State, so small by international downgrading of an agreement, sometimes called welching, that it has enlarged Arab grants of land considerably: if this is to be done, is it not war that says so ? And if it be not so, is it not enormous restraint that does not take it so ? But what do we hear of all this in the media, in the news reports ? Which of the sources focuses the facts, features the realities!

In vain does one look, except on rare occasions, for any concept of what is happening; and this blindness, as is normal for that state when wilful, can only reap its due reward. Look at history, and it tells you so, of national vainglory, treachery, selfish folly ... it goes on. Not least of the reasons for the monument to freedom, in political terms, the USA, suffering so grievously (and one does entirely sympathise with the recipients, however much they asked for it), in the Civil War was simply the unchaste greed for cheap workers, the unchastened rapacity and the immoderate folly that would have submerged a people into a slave force, while talking, in some cases, some kind of religion!

Here the Arab world continually harasses Israel, like a wolf trying to snap up an offering from a sick and lingering member of an elk herd! It drives it almost to division, it kills, it snarls, it sends rockets betimes, it lashes out with words, it would bury the State verbally, or immerse it oceanically as in the days of Nasser, when the UN forces so conveniently got out of the way, so enabling or at least facilitating his armed aggression against Israel, which was aptly devastated!

It goes on, till it ends, and that is soon (Answers to Questions Ch. 5, Little Things Chs. 7-10, Galloping Events Ch. 8).
 
 

In fact, it is an area bestrewn with levers, past, present and projected.

There is the lever of humiliating the nation, so that through suffering (added to the WW II quota), it may be subdued by pain, divided by terror, split in sorrow, gouged by grief, and fall silent like an Autumn leaf, awaiting its slow rotting into the soil.

There is another. It is integrating opposition under the PAN ISLAM (their title) mission to destroy Israel. Here there is the lever of NUMBERS, or if you like physical things in more detail, here is the muscle for the terror lever.

Again, there is the lever  of the UN. It is aptly involved with the Arab nations to the point that it is often quite hard to know whether it is the UN or some Arab junta which speaks, so cold, so subdued to the hateful mini-holocaust being wrought, so alive to Arab propaganda does it appear to be. Never having accorded Jerusalem to Israel, for its post-WW II part, the UN would like things toned down; it is altogether too much for Israel to have a whole third or so of the promised Palestine! Why ? These reasons, like the beauty which so baffled or stirred Wordsworth, like too deep ? for tears ? tears!

It helped Nasser by withdrawing, the Arabs by seeking to internationalise Jerusalem, and seemingly so does now, so that the Jews are not to be 'allowed' ONE capital, while the surrounding hordes of Islamic or even Arabic peoples have MANY of them, famed at that! This, it is justice ? Never has the same more obviously been malapropos!

If you want another, there is the US. Now let us be careful here. The USA has been a great friend to Israel, and in 1973 in particular, did wonderful things to help it. It is not an habitual lever BY ANY MEANS, but it CAN be used. Thus when Secretary of State, Powell, whose moderation in much has appeared so admirable, indicated that Israel had responded in some recent interchange, with undue force, one can understand what he is driving at: it is not a post, but it is the kerb. Thus, however apt or inept that particular pronouncement may have been, in general, the fact is that the patience shown by Israel appears objectively to vary IN LARGE SCALE ISSUES, from the amazing to the strong.

HOW can it suffer such attacks so solidly, so solemnly, with such slander, so constantly to array themselves in the electronic air, and the papers of the earth! HOW does it allow the constant barrages of hate in words, hate in deeds, hate in pretended weakness on the part of the Arabs, who have committed to them large armed forces of many nations, for their succour as need may require; and how can it bear with such constant aggression! Have not its people had to convert swamp-lands into productive fields, invented marvellous new watering processes to minimise waste, become from a near desert a place of staggering productive abundance in forests, flower and fruit ? have they not made a new and technical economy where antique ways obsolesced, and obsolescence provoked weariness into inaction ?

Is it then to be taken over by those who did NOT make it such a land ? Is it to be divided again and again, till very conscience, if any be left, makes red the faces of the marauding bulls! The bulls ? It is not the Arabs as such: it is the aggressive invasive provocations as such, whoever it is that is guilty from time to time. It is not that one loves the Arabs less, but the Lord more, who has given to them wealth and power beyond belief, if one compares them a century ago, with now, and lands and more lands as handouts, after World War I! It is not that one does not 'care' about Arab losses, but does not care for their putting children into the 'front line' - for if the violence and killing is to be domestic, AS IT IS, then what happens domestically is the FRONT LINE! There they place children and youth, to provoke, it seems, to be hurt, to be martyrs, to sway world opinion, while those who push the levers hundreds of kilometres away, swear their allegiance to the Palestinian cause, and war is a weapon of words! ... continually.

There is the lever of oil. The Arabs, the Muslims have it. Many want it. They want peace to get oil, and they want peace with Arabs to ensure they get it, do not lose out if there is a shortage, do not suffer diplomatic loss and then economic failure, as a result. Israel has less to provide.

There is the lever of absolutism, totalitarianism, to no small extent visible in Kuwait and Saudi-Arabia, in Iraq and Iran, whether it be religious or other. Democracy as to a large extent sought in Israel, for the people whose homeland it was to be, is not convenient. It might give other Arab peoples ideas. Israel is small but strong; it has very limited resources, but is powerful. Perhaps, perhaps democracy then ... The thought may be undesirable to many rulers, as is Israel; and besides, if SUBMISSION is to be the name of the Islam game, how submissive, really, is democracy ?

If the people to do not want Allah, as in measure greater or smaller  happened for a time in poor religiously oppressed Afghanistan where the woman are reported abused and subjugated beyond all reason, and happens in measure in Egypt, and in various places where then, from time to time, Muslim forces seek by force to change things away from such liberties: then what happens ? He goes from the national scene to that extent, except as an option.

Is this desired ? Is this not a removal of a potential political weapon for totalitarian rule, or else, a religious weapon from the world subduing arsenal ? Is a jihad likely in the long run, when the people have tasted a less oppressive 'liberty' ? Such considerations may act , and constitute the motivation and eventually the activation, for another lever.

Money is another lever. It is not just the commodity oil; it is the markets of the Middle East, where whatever the source of the money, it is spent, to buy cars, and sheep ... Hence there is a world ... interest in the market, and in its being a nice, stable, peaceable place where the vast hordes of Islamic peoples are not unduly stirred. What then is the mathematical equation behind the use of this lever ? Could it be this: WHAT is the force which the Arabs have ? What is the market which they constitute ? What is the parallel in each cases for Israel ? Then seek a solution which will make a balance, shifted towards the one with the greater quantities marked. Make it balance, quantity and value for the unknowns being components. This comes down by most crass estimates, heavily on the Arab side.

A further lever: tolerance. The Arabs are not so renowned for this, but still, a verbal barrage could be made here. It could be urged that the Arabs are really only trying to get one more place to call their own, having only a large array as it is, and the Jews are selfishly, yea, intolerantly trying to stop them. How unpleasant can you get! The Jews are clearly at fault. Let them be harassed some more until they allow more Arab land to be seized from its miserable acres! (one speaks in comparison, in terms of area alone).

It might seem absurd that such a thing could even be tried from any sane and balanced person, but when you next hear the propaganda of the Press, consider whether there is ever undertone or overtone, like that. The POOR Arabs NEED more land, and the RICH and EXTENSIVE Jews are quite unreasonably not giving it to them, apart from having handed back much of Sinai in one concession, and Gaza in another and so on. When you see the mockery of fact in the emotional side of the Press, it becomes contemptible.

Certainly, the Arab refugees should be considered; but not as rulers of Israel, but rather as participants in that part of Palestine GIVEN to Jordan, for example. Is grabbing the only way to proceed; has the idea of using what you have been given to be forgotten ? Is reason an exile and is compassion another lever, for those whom the Arabs will not re-settle in their lands ? Is violence to be the mode of life, and of death, so that Jordan does not like the Palestinians to be there, for this reason or that, too difficult ... and Israel must shed its tiny residue still further, till they inhabit and exact in it, sharing their ONLY capital for some ignoble reason (they have other MOSQUE centres nearby, the Jews no other domain), and becoming once more the door-mat of Europe, on which exactions and trials are like the coat fitted by a master tailor!

Let the world beware! God is on record about what He is going to do, and the detail has been spelled out as in the above references, and in summary in SMR pp. 502-510.
 
 

Meanwhile, there is also the attestation of what He has done already. Thus in Israel in its new tenure since 1948, archeology has been a focus, a feature and a wonder to many. It has grown and triumphs in it have appeared.

Thus in Reader's Digest, for example, April 2001, a few recent finds are noted. That these are notable for their expression of Biblical truth is intriguing, as if God were giving to Israel, which for all its sufferings, and indeed suffering as it does ULTIMATELY because of this, is still in formal rebellion against its own Messiah, who is also for the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6, 42:6 cf. SMR Ch. 9).

In 1993, one named Cook called the attention of archeologist Avraham Biran of Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, to look at an inscription on the exposed section of a basalt wall. The stone, identified as part of a stele from the ninth century B.C., when in fact Israel in its lusts and sins suffered considerable reverses, was from a Syrian king. He was concerned to commemorate some victories over "the house of David".

Several results accrue from this. Why was he so keen to make this record ? We do not know, but one prominent possibility is that it was very much worth recording, like the Battle of Britain, where against a huge force, victory was tenuously and later triumphantly obtained. David hundreds of years before, had been great; the kingdom divided, and people like Joram were in jeopardy (II Kings 9), this one, having fought Syria,  being wounded before his execution, while later, Joash, of child rescue fame, when a man did appalling things, like killing the son of his benefactor, and had to pay a huge ransom to the King of Syria. Defeats were far from uncommon as the kingdom regressed to eventual ruin, idolatrous, and even at times sending children to the blazing arms of brazen idols, it appears, as part of some form of 'worship' borrowed from the people they were supposed in purity, to replace!

This then fits precisely.

Secondly, it is direct attestation from the stones of the past, of the David of history, and his "house".

Thirdly, it attests military interaction between Israel, in the Southern portion, known as Judah, or the House of David, and Syria.

Again, in 1968 the "skeletal remains of a crucified man" were found in a Jerusalem burial cave. It is relevant since 1) it was a cave so serving 2) it was a crucified victim who inhabited it 3) the bones of the victim show one iron nail through both ankles, the shin bones broken, with the wrists probably pierced by nails. All this is in direct agreement with the tomb of Joseph of Arithmathea, as something that could happen for a victim, with the crucifixion procedure, with the breaking of shins (John 19:32-33). This was evidently the first such victim uncovered. It fits precisely with the Biblical record.

Further, in 1990, about 3 km south of the Temple Mount, a hidden burial chamber was found, with 12 limestone ossuaries, dating to the first century. One, apparently relating to a man who had been 60 years of age, bore the inscription, 'Yehosel bar Qayafa' - Joseph, son of Caiaphas. It is reported that this is taken by experts to refer to the Caiaphas, high priest of Jerusalem, and thus fits precisely with the Biblical indications concerning the time and the man.

As if this were not enough: years earlier, at Caesarea Maritima, ancient base of the Roman government in Judea, a stone slab was found. Though damaged, it is believed the message is this: Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea, has dedicated to the people of Caesarea a temple in honour of Tiberius. It is allegedly the first inscription bearing Pilate's name!

Of course, in the 1990's we have had also the remarkable confirmations of the fall of Jericho in the 15th century B.C., by the renowned world expert on pottery, Dr Bryant Wood, fully confirming the dating of Professor Garstung of Oxford, whose systematic researches were so well attested from the first. (Cf. SMR pp. 1185).

In the twenty first century it is not only archeology, however, but contemporary paper 'tablets' which record in this way and in that, and not always with sympathy: the ongoing saga of Israel's selection, rejection of Christ, dispersion from the land on schedule, as arranged (cf. Luke 19:42ff.), the Gospel's confirmation by works from Christ (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17), its spread over the globe, its continued rejection by the Jewish nation, the constant wars about Jerusalem, its cutting in two (1948), its amazing victories in 1948, 67, 73, and the protective war of 1991 (as it was in effect for Israel!), in the same genre, together with the downfall increasingly of all morality among the Gentiles, while false prophets abound, and Islam is a very present case, for Israel; and all the other criteria of the opera program, the notations for the works of God. (See on such topics, SMR pp. 647ff., 717ff., 755ff., 816-829, Galloping Events Ch. 1, Ch. 4, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13, Divine Agenda Ch. 8.)

Nothing changes in the word of God; the face of the world is changing fast to keep up with it.

So the testimony continues, the nation continues, as it must till the Lord come, the exposure continue, and the Gospel continues, until covering the world, it sets the schedule for the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The ancient words are followed by the modern deeds. The match is like that of twins.

But the land of Israel ? It cannot be cloned for one simple reason: it is BOOKED BY GOD for Israel (cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4), and it is booked for the site of His return (Zechariah 14), and before that for the site of  DELIVERANCE many of the Jews from unbelief (Zechariah 12:10). THAT, it is their chief enemy. They are at the right school, but have the wrong syllabus.