The Battle Belongs to Whom?
By Travis K. McSherley

Almost any article on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is bound to be outdated before the final sentence is completed.  (Case in point: already, two suicide bombings have taken place in the two days that this column has been on my computer screen.)  Nevertheless, this battle has been going on for years and years, and it won't stop until someone with real authority takes over.

The cover of the April 1 Newsweek read "The Future of Israel: How Will It Survive?"  Anybody watching the news over the past weeks would not find that to be a strange question.  Sadly, much of the world would not be too disappointed if Israel did not survive.  Crowds in the streets yelling "Death to Israel!" don't seem terribly interested in the peace process.  Neither does Yasser Arafat, it would appear.  In late March, Arafat declined to go to a peace summit in Beirut, even after Israel began withdrawing troops from the West Bank.  In a pretty coy move, though, he later declared that he was ready for a cease fire -- right after Israel began preparing a retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed 19 people celebrating Passover.

Following that bombing, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent troops back into Ramallah to invade Yasser Arafat's headquarters.  The response was amazing, yet predictable: the Arab world, the United Nations, and even the United States encouraged Israel to restrain itself and withdraw.  Arafat lies to his people, lies to the rest of the world, allows and encourages his people to take their own lives to kill Israelis -- and he's still expected to be a valid leader to bring to the negotiation table?

Arafat has proven himself to be a shrewd con man.  He has been quoted as comparing the Oslo Accord to a peace treaty signed by Muhammed, which was meant to sustain peace only until his army was strong enough to be victorious in battle.  Something much more sinister than meets the eye is going on here.  This isn't about finding peace.  It isn't about gaining a "Palestinian state."  That could have happened easily enough already, particularly in 2000, when Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton offered Arafat 96 percent of the West Bank, and even part of East Jerusalem.

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Anyone who doubts that has not been following the news in the Middle East.  No other explanation could be given for the insanity and the rage over this tiny piece of land.  No other way could it be conceivable that, after months and months of allowing suicide bombers to target Israeli citizens, Arafat has the audacity to say that the "problem is not my life, the problem is what our people are facing, what are (sic) our authority is facing, what the whole region is facing" and that he wants "the withdrawal of the Israeli forces immediately and for the cease-fire and to attain back to the implemen[ta]tion of the George Mitchell understanding..." (1)

Apparently, he takes the world for fools.  Too bad so much of the world is willing to oblige.  But this whole situation extends far beyond a battle for land, far beyond a vendetta against Ariel Sharon, and even far beyond an attempt to exterminate the Jewish people.  This conflict is a finger in the face of the God of Abraham and Isaac.  In case we've forgotten, it's His land that they're fighting over.  Muslims may not accept it, but Israel is God's property -- and He can reclaim it whenever He wants.

I'm not against giving people in the West Bank and Gaza an independent state (minus Yasser Arafat as pseudo-leader), but ultimately, it's all the land of the Lord, to be used in His way.  Ezekiel 38 states,

And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes...For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel...Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 38:16,19,23)

The Word clearly shows that little Israel was bound to be "headline news," even a couple thousand years after these prophecies were given.  Israel dominates the world scene, much of it within an unbelievably critical tone.  For whatever reason, we still want to negotiate and try to talk peace with a terrorist leader who seeks only destruction and death.

The world is pushing its limits.  Arafat's troops have gone well past theirs.  God will allow this madness to continue for only so long.  He loves the Jewish people, but He has an even more powerful motive for protecting this tiny parcel of Middle Eastern property.  Ezekiel 36:22 gives the answer, "Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went" (emphasis mine).

How will Israel survive?  Well, let's just say that they have a fairly experienced General.
 

(1) http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49148,00.html