Israel Today

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the United States a couple of weeks ago and it caused a lot of conversation about the nation of Israel. We know that the current nation of Israel started in 1948, but we as Bible scholars also know that the nation of Israel existed before and at the time of Jesus Christ. At the time of Christ, the Romans were the power of the world. King Titus of Rome defeated the Jews militarily in 70 a.d. and changed the name of the country to Palestina. Around 135 a.d., the Romans totally destroyed the city of Jerusalem and forced the Jews to leave the city. The Romans sold about a third of the Jews in the land as slaves to countries around the world. The end result was that Jews were spread into many different countries.

The practice of keeping their religion and not inter-marrying kept the Jews apart from the nations that they went into even after they escaped being slaves. Wherever they located the countries prospered and the culture improved and jealousy led to anti-Semitism. The Jews that remained in Palestina gathered in Galilee near the sea. In 636, the Dome of the Rock was built on the holy mountain in Jerusalem which showed the influence of the Muslims in the land. From about 1516 to 1918 the Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled the land and the Jews were tolerated but never favored.

The British Empire took control of Palestine in 1918 and the Jews began to return in large numbers from nations all over the world. Roughly half of the Jews that were in Russia came back and many of the Jews in Germany returned to the land. The Holocaust of the Jews by Hitler and the Germans in the early 1940s told the Jews that if they were to survive they must have a nation of their own. The Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets told them that their land was the land where the City of Jerusalem was located. Their land was within the land designated as Palestine at this time. When the British Empire took over the territory in 1918 there were approximately 60,000 Jews and 600,000 Arabs in the land. At that time, Palestine included all of the land currently a part of Jordan and part of what is now Northern Saudi Arabia. By 1946 there were 543,000 Jews and 1,267,037 Arabs in the land. The ratio changed from 10 to 1 in 1918 and was about 2 ½ to 1 in favor of the Arabs by 1948.

In 1947, the British Empire agreed to give up control of the land and ceded control to the United Nations. The United Nations divided the land in 1948 and gave the Jews most of the land they had in Bible times and gave all of the land east of the Jordan River to the Arabs. After the division, the land of the Jews west of the Jordan River had 716,700 Jews and 156,000 Arabs. The Arab land east of the Jordan River had a population of 1,650,000. The Jews declared their land to be named Israel.

The United Nations introduced their plan for the division of the land of Palestine in November of 1947 and the fighting began between the Jews and the Arabs living in Palestine. A Jewish lady named Golda Meir was the leader of the Jews that were in Palestine. The underground army of the Jews was called Haganah and they began to defend against the Arab attacks. David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin were leaders in this group. The Arabs received help from the Arab countries surrounding the area and others. Arms and ammunition for the Arabs were sent in by air and by boat to help with this fight.

On May 14, 1948, the United Nations approved the separation plan for the land and Israel immediately announced a new nation named Israel with Golda Meir as President. On May 15, Israel was attacked by Egypt, Jordon, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq at the same time. The goal was to push the Jews into the sea. The fighting had several cease-fire agreements but the final fighting concluded in January 1949. Israel signed peace treaties between each enemy on a separate basis and ended up with more territory than the original UN Agreement.

In May of 1967, Egypt closed Israel’s port in the Gulf of Aqaba which led to the Red Sea. They also closed the Suez Canal to Israeli Ships. On June 5, 1967, Israel attacked Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and captured the entire peninsula and opened the Israeli ports. On the same day, Israel attacked the area known as the West Bank which belonged to Jordan and captured it. Syria had been firing down on Israel from the Golan Heights and Israel launched an attack that gave them control of the Golan Heights. Lebanon also attacked Israel. This was a war against three nations and it was over in six days. Israel owned all of the land from the Suez Canal at Egypt to the Red Sea and from the Jordan River to the southern borders of Lebanon and Syria.

In 1973, on the most Holy day of Yom Kippur, Egypt’s Army crossed the Suez into the area of Sinai that Israel had taken from them. At the same time, Syria’s Army attacked and took control of the Golan Heights. It was a surprise attack to Israel on this high religious holiday. In a short time, Israel had pushed the Egyptian Army back into Egypt and established a position on the mainland of Egypt. They also quickly pushed the Syrian army out of the Golan Heights. Over the next year, agreements reestablished the borders back to their positions before the attacks.

In 1974, the 20 groups of Palestinians joined together under Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and they became the single recognized enemy of Israel. The Palestinians do not have a legal state to be recognized and do business with the rest of the world. Israel owns the West Bank land where the Palestinians are located. Israel has few requirements to give the Palestinians property to have a two state solution. The Palestinians must admit that Israel has the right to exist and keep the land they have. The other is that the Palestinians must agree not to attack Israel. In 1948, all of the land in Palestine was the same rough desert. Today, the land occupied by the Jews is green and growing due to the irrigation systems and there are companies producing products to sell. The Palestinians area is still dry desert. There are no oil wells. There is no industry. The United States pays for the cost of the government of the Palestinians. Their food comes from the farms in Israel.

When President Obama became president, the first telephone call he made was to PLO Chief Mahmoud Abbas who had replaced Yasser Arafat. Since the last U.S. presidential election, the PLO now says they have not heard from anyone in the Trump administration. President Trump considers Israel to be an integral partner in the fight against Jihadist Islam, ISIS and the Iranians. The Israeli Masood is the best spy group in the Middle East and there are very few things that they do not know about the various governments. Israel does not discuss their military preparedness but you can be certain they are prepared. I am personally convinced that Israel has the blockbuster bombs that can open up the earth into Iran’s underground nuclear labs. I believe that Israel has nuclear weapons and the air power to deliver them wherever they want them to go. They also have the smartest and wisest leaders in the Middle East.