Palestine

One of the most brilliant addresses I have ever heard given from a podium was given yesterday by the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, given before the United Nations in New York City. In the address, this remarkable man gave the history of the Jewish state since it's founding in 1948. But, more importantly, he gave a history lesson involving thousands of years of Judaism, from the first Jew, Abraham. This follows the address of Mahmoud Abbas involving the acceptance of Palestine, as a state, in the United Nations.

Those of us who have visited the Holy Lands realize the importance of Israel's ability to defend herself. Israel, just 7.5M in population, surrounded by millions of enemies, Muslims who despise and defy the very existence of the Jewish state.

There are more Jews in Manhattan, New York City, than in Israel. I have never understood why Jews in America vote Democrat...74%. Like the blacks (voting 99% Democrat) who were liberated by Republican Lincoln, the Jewish nation Israel's best friend is the Republican party. No president, before Obama, has been more defiant of Israel. Yet the Jews in America continue to support Obama.

Angels have stood on the skyline of the world, watching with amazement, the treatment of God's chosen people, the Jews, and that small strip of land, now called Israel, which was, at one time, the cross roads of the ancient world. God had a special reason in His affection for this small strip of land, about the size of Connecticut, in some places only 9 miles wide, the location for the birth of His Son, the location for the city of Jerusalem, the world's most holy city, the focal point of three religions...Christian, Jew, Muslim.

This year we are celebrating the 400^th anniversary of the King James version of God's holy word. God's holy word involves the history of one people, the Jews. The rest of us are only involved as we are involved with the Jews. The book of Romans, to the book Philemon, New Testament, involves the church. But, God tells us in Genesis, that history and the church depend on our relationship with the Jews. And, I firmly believe, that the prosperity of America has been completely associated with America's friendship with, and defense of, Israel. We fully realize that Israel is a secular nation, 80% of Israel's citizens do not believe in God. Perhaps this accounts for the Jewish voting record in America since most Democrats do not believe in God. No Christian, no Jew, can support the Democrat party, the platform of the Democrat party, who supports abortion and same sex marriage. A direct antipathy to everything Jews (their laws, their memory of the holocaust), Christians, sanctity of the home, holy matrimony, diabolical insult to the essence of male-female, one flesh children, the insanity of same sex marriage, “don't ask, don't tell”, military problems.

I have visited the Holy Lands three times since the formation of the Jewish state in 1948. I remember landing at Ben Gurion Airport thinking of that old man as he proclaimed the Jewish state, fulfilling Bible prophecy. Just walking the streets of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Capernaum, putting my feet into the Jordan River, The Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee, refreshed my devotion to my Christian faith and heritage. How could any Jew or Christian deny their inheritance?

At the time of my first visit, this was before the '67 war, Jordan controlled part of Jerusalem. I had a Jewish guide around the Wailing Wall, a Jordanian guide around The Mosque of Omar, the Muslim area of Jerusalem. How well I remember the Muslim sections, attempting to arrive in Hebron (I wanted to visit the tombs of Abraham and Sarah), the Arab villages, rock piles, rocks thrown at my jeep, being rescued by United Nations white vehicles.

The Israel/Palestine/Middle East problems have been on the front of newspapers my entire lifetime. On subsequent visits I stayed in outer communes and visited the outposts both in the Golan Heights and Lebanon. Israel had developed Gaza (Gaza is referred to in the Bible as the place where the evangelist Phillip talked with the Ethiopian Munich, in his chariot, about his soul). After Israel gave up Gaza trying to obtain peace with Hamas, Hamas immediately destroyed 25 Jewish synagogues and increased their shelling and warfare against Israel's cities. Now, with the increased hostility of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, Cairo a city of 17M, with direct access to Gaza, more warfare is expected.

My first visit to Israel was after the repatriated Jews (survivors of the holocaust, Russia, Africa, etc.) had returned to the desolate country and made of it a garden. (Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 41:12-14, 18-20; Isaiah 43:5-6; Isaiah 51:3; Amos 9:11, 13; Ezekiel 29:15; Ezekiel 36:1; Micah 4:1; Zechariah 8:7-8). Today, and I am witness, Israel is a productive, seductive, Democratic nation. It produces enough food and fruit to feed most of Europe, has one of the most powerful military forces in the world. The lazy, unproductive, Arabs have learned to mess with Israel at their own risk as we have learned in this nation, as the world has learned (more Nobel prizes in science than any other nation), the Jews are the smart scientist, lawyers, doctors. God does not forget or forsake His own.

Younger, one of my friends, Ruth Andrews Killite, wealthy NC family, her parents sailed on a ship to Israel in the late 1800's. They reported the same thing that Mark Twain, an American writer who also wanted to visit Israel, reported. It was a ravaged, unproductive, desert. God gave this land, 600 miles from where Abraham started, to Abraham and his descendents. It is from Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, that we have a continued family-religious conflict. Like every other prophecy and promise in God's word, every one of which has been fulfilled to this moment, God, in His own good time, will straighten it out.