The Next War in Israel is Imminent - By Pastor Mike Taylor - http://pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-next-war-in-israel-is-imminent.html
25 "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (Romans 11:25-27)
Have you ever stopped to consider in this fast paced world we live in, the miracle this is the nation of Israel? Of all people on earth, the Israelites, the Jewish people have been the whipping boy for the entire world. They have been persecuted wherever they went. The Gentiles around them abused and destroyed many of the members of this race, God called Israelites, or Hebrew in the Old Testament during the time of Abraham.
I see what the history of Israel has been since I've been alive, and all you can say, God has worked a miracle when it comes to Israel. Let us examine for a bit, the quick history of the establishment of Israel and the fight she has had to bring to her enemies who only wish to destroy her.
In 1948, the tiny nation of Israel declared her independence and was recognized by our president at the time, Harry S. Truman, which gave them immediate credibility on the world stage. But it also brought about the swift action of the surrounding Arab neighbors who wished to drive them into the sea.
Israel should not have won. Their military assets were grossly inferior to the blood thirty Arabs who wished only to destroy this fledging nation and remove her from the face of the earth once and for all...but that is not what happened. Anyone who wants to read about the unheard of "miracle" of the first war of survival that Israel was faced with can only come away with one impression., that is, God was on the side of Israel.
No one can explain how Israel won the 1948 War of Independence. The US Army War College at West Point doesn't even study Israel's victory. When asked why, they replied, "We don't teach miracles here."...Even our military realized that it was an impossibility for Israel to win against such odds, but she did.
She has been the recipient of God's blessings, and many of those who fought did not realize that they were a part of the Divine intervention of God Almighty. Fast forward to the war that developed in 1967, or the Six Day War.
ISRAEL RECLAIMS THE TEMPLE MOUNT
In May, 1967, Egyptian and Syrian troops began massing along Israel's borders. Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Egyptian President Gamel Abdul Nasser filled the airwaves with calls to drive the Jews into the sea.
Facing five well-equipped, Soviet trained Arab armies, Israel's defeat was virtually a foregone conclusion. But instead of defeat, Israel managed to achieve a stunning victory.
In just six days, Israel doubled its territory, capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, Gaza, the West Bank and the Old City and Temple Mount.
This lightning speed war that gave Israel the victory against all odds, was called a miraculous victory, but it wasn't Israel's first miracle on the battlefield and it would not be her last. Every single battle that Israel has fought with her Arab neighbors has resulted in their victory in every single one of them and they all were miraculous.
There was a man that I was reading about during this Six Day War, that has a miraculous story to tell. The man Gershon Salamon tells a story of battling Jordanians forces just outside of his home in Israel. The man is a tenth generation "Sabra" or "native born Jerusalemite" who fought in every war since the 1948 war of Independence. The man was reported to had to have use of a cane to walk, and from that he told his story. The man's back was bowed and you would think he had some type of genetic defect that he was born with, such as Spina Bifida, or some similar defect that left him in this condition.
His wife reported that she stood on her balcony and saw the fighting in a field just behind their house. She pointed out that the Jordanians were "right there" as she pointed off into the near distance. She knew her husband was probably fighting in that field
Backing up, it was told in 1958, during a battle on the Golan hights, that her husband was wounded by an Israeli tank. Salamon told of how the tank accidentally rolled over him and ran him over. The tank caught his collar of his shirt and folded him over backwards, snapping his spine in two.
The Jordanians overran their position and were shooting wounded Israeli soldiers as they lay on the ground. As they were about to shoot Gershon Salamon, he told that they suddenly dropped their weapons and ran away.
Later, it was reported to UN officers these enemy soldiers had seen thousands of soldiers surrounding the cripple IDF officer and had, therefore, fled believing they were outnumbered..The event was corroborated by a UN document filed by a UN observer, as he went to see the injured Salamon because he witnessed the retreat and was mystified to its cause.
Gershon Salamon's story of angelic warriors is not the first I'd heard -- it was merely the first time I'd heard the story from an eyewitness. The bible speaks of another time, when Angelic host came to fight on the side of Israel.
In 2nd Kings, there is a recorded miracle of Divine intervention when the enemies of Israel surrounded the city and God provided a miracle that Elisha saw and told his servant "Fear not". :
14 "Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha." (2nd Kings 6:14-18)
REPORTS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD
Soldiers have reported seeing angelic being on the the battlefield and this has happened in all of Israel's wars. There is an example of a Colonel Uri Ram that was welcomed into Shecham by enemy Jordanian troops during the Six Day War.
Somehow the Jordanians inadvertently mistook the Israelis for Iraqis and by the time they realized their mistake they had no choice but to surrender.
Another instance recalls of a lone Israeli soldier stumbled into a Jordanian trench where he single handedly captured Ammunition Hill which led to the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem the following day.
And an Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai surrendered his entire column to less than a dozen Israeli tanks on the second day of the Six Days War. He later said that he saw thousands of them. Remember the scripture that Elisha opened the eyes of his servant to the hills being filled with chariots of fire all about them?
17 "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LordGod might dwell among them" (Psalms 68:17-18)
THE LIST GOES ON AND ON
Need a few more miracles that cannot be explained? I saw this on TV that was a depiction of this next miracle, when a group of Israel commandos were trapped in a minefield in the dark and they could not move, unless they trip a mine and kill them all. So they stayed where they were not knowing what to do. Suddenly, a strong wind came up and surrounded them and blew very hard for several minutes. When they finally opened their closed eyes from the blowing sand being expired, they could not believe their eyes. The wind had blown away all the sand around each land mine, and exposed them all to the soldiers and they were able to escape the mine field safely.
An Israeli documentary series entitled "Against All Odds - Israel Survives: The Complete First Season" details miracles a lot harder to explain, like strange beings with flaming swords defending a Jewish farming community from marauding Arabs. And the list just goes on and on.
I guess with any reported miracle, you could take it apart and try and explain it away as some natural cause rather than a supernatural cause. The Egyptian tank commander who lost his whole column could have been seeing only a "mirage" . Maybe the Jordanians had never seen an Iraqi tank and could not tell the difference between it and an Israeli tank.
Maybe the lone Israeli soldier was just "lucky" when he captured a whole host of Jordanian soldiers and the capturing of Ammunition Hill and the retaking their Holy City of Jerusalem.
I don't know what you could come up with to explain why the man Gershon Salamon survived and the enemy ran away seeing thousands of soldiers around him. I choose to believe that God has got Israel's back and will not let them be destroyed. Could it be coincidence? I don't believe God works in coincidence.
The Bible identifies the archangel Michael as Israel's guardian angel. (Daniel 10:13)
Daniel specifically notes that at the time of the end:
"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:1-3)
The prophet Zechariah prophesied that in the last days, God would send His angels to fight alongside Israel.
6 "In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem."(Zechariah 12:6-9)
The war of Independence that Israel fought in 1948 is no less a miracle than the preservation of the Israelites in the desert when they took flight from Egypt under the command of their mortal shepherd, Moses. Or the miracles that Joshua commanded Israel to reclaim the land of Canaan for their promised land.
God has been doing miracle after miracle when it comes to the land of Israel, as God said that they would never be uprooted again.
20 "and when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land.
21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
22 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.
23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." (Ezekiel 36:20-25)
Israel has had to fight for her very life, since she came back into her own land, that God gave to her descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for a perpetual inheritance...meaning it will never end.
Remember in the recent past when Saddam Hussein fired thirty Scud missiles in to Israel during the first Gulf War, hoping to divide the UN coalition? Most of the missiles landed in the inhabited portions of Tel Aviv to name one, where in comparison, a single Scud missile fired at the US barracks in Saudi Arabia killed 28 National Guardsman from Pennsylvania. But not one missile killed one Jewish resident of these major cities of Israel. Only two casualties were reported..a Saudi security guard, and an Israeli-Arab.
During this war, Israel had nothing to do with the conflict between Kuwait and Iraq, but Israel is always the ultimate goal and target of those who wish to do her harm in any war in the Middle East.
IN RECENT NEWS CLIPS
I have been reading the developments in the nations surrounding Israel and from all reports, the Syrians and the Lebanese are trying to create a noose around Israel's neck. I have reported this in the recent past, but the enemies of Israel are growing more bold, since they have as their junkyard Dog, the nation of Russia to give them confidence of their ability to wage war in the area. I note that Hezbollah has upwards of 150,000 short, medium, and long range guided missiles that in the next war will cause much devastation for the Israeli-Arab citizens. To the east, the Golan Heights are being enforced with Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their troops that are building bases right at Israel's front door. The likelihood of another war involving Lebanon, or/and Syria is not if, but when will the fighting start.
It doesn't take much imagination to see that the next war is shaping up to be fought very soon. I have been watching and wondering when the prophesied war of Psalms 83 would be coming forth, and I feel we are on the cusp of its fulfillment. Never has this prophecy been completed, even though Isreael has fought many wars since her birth in 1948. God has promised Israel that they will possess all of the land promised to their forefather Abraham, and this war just might do it. When Israel is cornered and her existence is in doubt, the "Samson Option" will be put in place. I believe it might include a nuclear hit on the capital of Damascus, Syria.
FROM ONE WAR TO ANOTHER
As I have preached in the past, this coming Psalms 83 war sets the table for the next big war that will cause the earth to tremble when God will come down to defend Israel in all His fury and there will be no doubt who is doing the miracle here.
16 "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.
17 Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 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;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 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 38:17-23)
Does it give you pause to know that each war is a domino, that when it falls, the next one is set up to be knocked over as well? What will the coming Ezekiel War produce? It will produce profound desolation of the invading armies that will destroy 85% or 5/6 of the invading army. The plague that will be produced will follow the survivors back to their home countries and the destruction continues in their own land, family, and countrymen. I believe Islam will be decimated, as the armies of this invading hoard are near total Islamic.
What is coming will be swift. It won't take many years before Gog-Magog will be brought down into Israel like a fish with a hook in his mouth and be destroyed on the mountains of Israel. When this happens, look for a charismatic man to arise who will attempt to prevent such a total disaster from happening again in this part of the world. The world has always been focusing on Israel as the problem with everything, including terrorism, the plight of the so called "Palestinians", and every ill they can conceive to cast upon Israel. Anti-Semitism is and will grow to make Nazi Germany look like a school yard picnic compared to what is coming. As you know, this man will "confirm" a pre-existing covenant to fulfill the coming 70th week of Daniel's prophecy concerning the people of Israel.
I see the whole scenario coming very quickly in our end of days, which we live in. But not to worry, if you be found in Jesus Christ, for that man will not be revealed until one thing happens. Can you say it before I do?
The removal of the Church from this planet, as that covenant confirmed will not be ratified before that time, and God will reveal that "man of sin" which we only can wonder who he is at the present time. He will be revealed at God's timing, and only God knows when He will remove the church from out of the way to bring His Holy Wrath upon this earth, and it starts with the signing of this 7 year "peace treaty" by the Anti-Christ and the government of Israel.
Israel still has a long "row to hoe" as she will face untold persecution in the foreseeable future. But God will bring a remnant through much suffering, and will come and fight for them, as Zechariah prophesied, and it is just over the horizon, just out of sight for us, but grows closer with each passing day.
2 "For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." (Zechariah 14:3-5)
Israel will realize their Messiah through much death and persecution, where the Bible says 2/3 of the people will be slain, but a remnant will be saved.
8" And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God."(Zechariah 13:8-9)
Believe my reader, Israel's existence is a daily miracle, punctuated at times by a whole set of miracles, but you have not seen anything yet. Those who are still on this planet, will see much happening in the nation of Israel. They will see Divine Protection, but also Divine judgment to bring Israel to the realization of her Messiah.
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10)
This Divine protection over Israel, even their refining as gold is refined in the fire, is not conditional. God will not remove His Hand from the protection of Israel, unlike what is happening in America. God cannot withdraw His hand from Israel, but it doesn't apply to the USA, as we do not have a covenant with God, as Israel does and ratified in the time of Abraham. American could collapse and go the way of the Roman Empire, but Israel cannot.
Israel is on the exact real estate that the Roman Empire evicted them from in 70 AD. Restoration began in 1948 and will never be annulled. God will not allow Israel to be destroyed and restored again. These are the final days of the end for this earth, and the fulfillment of Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy.
The restoration of Israel marks the beginning of the countdown to the return of Christ within that generation. Israel can only be restored for the first time once.
"Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever." (Jeremiah 31:35-36)
Note that the word 'ordinance' means 'law.' God has decreed the existence of Israel forever as a matter of Divinely-settled law. Israel's miracles aren't over. Not by a long shot.
If anything, they are just beginning.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Israel has all kinds of Divine promises to protect, and restore her. You and I cannot say the same thing. We are a Gentile nation that God has a plan for us as well. Israel are a special people in His eyes, but He has another special people that He desires to be in His family, just as Israel are His chosen people. God has been working with a "people who were not His people"
We the chosen of this age are called "His people" His bride...
7 "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 'And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." (1st Peter 2:7-10)
God has chosen a people, who will become part of His family..the Family of God YAHWEH. We who accepted Jesus as personal Savior will not see much of what I have spoken of near the end. It is designed for the future after the church is gone. I invite you to become part of this family...The Family of God. It only takes belief in two scripture passages, as there are many more, but this two passages seal the gift of eternal life for all who believe.
16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18)
and the other passage I like to include in any message I write beside the above, is the following:
9 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." (Roman 10:9-11)
The Big Middle East Lie - By Bassam Tawil -
Nimer Mahmoud Jamal, the 37-year-old Palestinian terrorist who on September 25 murdered three Israelis at the entrance to Har Adar near Jerusalem, had a permit from the Israeli authorities to work in Israel.
His family and friends say he also had a good life and was considered lucky to have been employed by Jews because he received a higher salary and was protected by Israeli labor laws. The night before Jamal set out in his murderous mission, he spent a few hours at the fitness gym in his village, located only a few miles away from Har Adar.
So, Jamal, the murderer of the three Israelis (two of the victims were Arab Israelis), was not poor. He was not unemployed. In fact, according his friends, Jamal earned much more than what a senior police officer or school teacher working for the Palestinian Authority or Hamas brings home every month.
What was it, then, that drove Jamal to his murderous scheme, gunning down three young men who were supposed to be facilitating his entry into Israel? Was it because he could not provide for his children? No. Was it because his landlord was pressuring him about the rent?
No: Jamal lived in a nice place of his own, complete with furniture, appliances and bedrooms that any family in the West would be proud to own.
Jamal wanted to murder Jews because he believed this was a noble deed that would earn him the status of shaheed (martyr) and hero among his family, friends and society. In Palestinian culture in particular, and Arab culture in general, murderers of Jews are glorified on a daily basis.
They are touted as the lucky ones who are now in the company of Prophet Mohammed and the angels in Paradise. Male terrorists are also busy with the 72 virgins they were awarded as a prize for murdering Jews. The murderers -- as Muslim clerics and leaders hammer into the heads of Palestinians -- are also given access to rivers of honey and fine drinks once they set foot in their imaginary Paradise.
Jamal's friends and family are now convinced that he has been rewarded by Allah and Prophet Mohammed in Paradise for murdering three Israelis. They do not care about his children, whom he left behind, and certainly not about the families of the three Israelis he murdered.
In his village and on social media, Jamal is being hailed as a hero and martyr. Not a single Palestinian has come out against the cowardly terror attack by a man who took advantage of a permit from the Israeli authorities to commit a terror attack.
The Jewish families that once employed Jamal as a cleaner had trusted him. They had opened their homes and hearts, as well as their wallets, to him. The Israeli authorities wanted to trust him and see him as a normal person who just wanted a job with a decent income to support his family.
But Jamal, like many other Palestinians, betrayed the trust the Jews gave him. He chose to stab in the back the same people who had gone out of their way to help him.
Sadly, this terrorist also betrayed the cause of thousands of Palestinian workers who enter Israel for work every day. These workers stand to lose the most from Jamal's terror attack and treachery.
Luckily for them, the Israeli authorities are saying that the Har Adar murder will not affect Israel's policy of granting permits to Palestinians to work inside Israel, because the vast majority are not involved in violence.
The Har Adar murders ought to teach us at least one thing: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about the economy or improving the living conditions of the Palestinians. Jamal, who had a job and freedom of movement and a lovely apartment, surely proves this point, as do the murders or attempted murders by other well-to-do terrorists such as Mohammad Atta, Osama bin Laden, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and many others.
Jamal's bloody lesson, however, apparently still needs to be learned by the West, which, despite all evidence, doggedly persists in drawing an unbroken line between Palestinian terrorism and poverty.
Jamal, however, is far from the first terrorist to convey this crucial lesson: most Palestinian terrorists over the past decades were educated and had jobs.
Some Palestinian suicide bombers were nurses, schoolteachers and lawyers. Some came from middle class and even wealthy families and clans. Money and education, however, did not stop them from committing atrocities against Israelis.
Terrorists like Jamal are motivated by deep hatred for Jews and Israel. They have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by their leaders and Muslim religious clerics into believing that Jews are evil and need to be eliminated by all available means.
Not a single terrorist has complained of carrying out an attack because he or she were starving, had no food for the children and were unable to buy ice cream from the local grocery store. The terrorists, in fact, spell it out as it is: they openly announce that they are motivated by their indoctrinated hatred for Israel and Jews.
This is what the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic propaganda machine has done to generations of Arabs and Muslims. Officials and people in the West may deny what they hear as hard as they like; but the terrorists could not be more are honest about what their murderous motives are.
What, then, about those on the West who continue to talk about the conflict as if it were about creating new jobs and paving roads and improving infrastructure for the Palestinians? This seems to be the approach endorsed in the U.S. by Donald Trump's administration.
There is nothing wrong, of course, with boosting the economy and creating job opportunities. This might have a moderating effect on a few Palestinians. They will be happy to see a better economy and a drop in the unemployment rate.
Such measures, however, will never change the hearts and minds of Palestinians. Palestinians will never recognize Israel's right to exist because Americans and Europeans built them an industrial park somewhere in the West Bank.
Over the past 25 years, the Palestinians have received billions of dollars in aid from the international community. When they headed to the ballot boxes, they voted for Hamas because it told them it will destroy Israel. Palestinians are most likely to vote for Hamas once again if free and democratic elections were held tomorrow in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
We might remember this as Trump's Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, returns to our region to discuss ways of reviving the so-called peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. The Trump administration and Jason Greenblatt seem to have bought the lie that "It's about money, stupid."
No. The conflict is about an unbendable refusal to allow a Jewish Israel to exist in the Middle East. It is about the abiding interest in the Arab and Islamic world to obliterate Israel and murder Jews. It is about the ongoing, bloody Arab and Islamic incitement against Israel and Jews. Jobs are not the problem, and they are not the solution. Let us pay attention to reality for a change: Jamal and his fellow terrorists can teach us something -- if only we would listen.
In this round of reconciliation talks, Hamas is the great victor - By Caroline B. Glick -
No, the ceremony isn't being portrayed as a Fatah surrender to Hamas. But it is. It's also an Egyptian surrender to Hamas.
On Tuesday, a delegation of 400 Fatah officials from Ramallah, led by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, arrived in Gaza to officially surrender to Hamas.
No, the ceremony isn't being portrayed as a Fatah surrender to Hamas. But it is. It's also an Egyptian surrender to Hamas.
How is this the case? Ten years ago this past June, after a very brief and deadly assault by Hamas terrorists against US-trained Fatah forces in Gaza, the Fatah forces cut and ran to Israel for protection. Fatah politicians also headed for the border and then scurried into Fatah-controlled (and Israeli protected) Ramallah. Ever since, Hamas has served as the official authority on the ground in Gaza. Its personnel have been responsible for internal security and for Gaza's borders with Egypt and Israel.
Despite their humiliating defeat and removal from Gaza, Fatah and its PA government in Ramallah continued to fund Hamas-controlled Gaza. They paid Gaza's bills, including the salaries of all the PA security forces that were either no longer working or working double shifts as stay at home Fatah gunmen and up and coming Hamas terrorist forces.
The PA paid Hamas's electricity bills to Israel and it paid Israeli hospitals which continued to serve Gaza.
Internationally, the PA defended Hamas and its constant wars against Israel. The PA and Fatah, led by President-for-life Mahmoud Abbas, continued to use Israel's defensive operations against Hamas as a means to ratchet up their political war against Israel. The latest victory in that war came last week with Interpol's decision to permit the PA to join the organization despite its open support for and finance of terrorism.
For most of the past decade, the PA-Fatah has allocated more than half of its EU- and US-underwritten budget to Hamas-controlled Gaza. It has defended its actions to successive delegations of US lawmakers and three US administrations. It has defended its actions to EU watchdog groups. No amount of congressional pressure or statements from presidential envoys ever made a dent on Abbas's strident devotion to paying the salaries of Hamas terrorists and functionaries.
But then, in April, Abbas cut them off.
Ostensibly he cut them off because he was under pressure from the US Congress, which is now in the end stages of passing the Taylor Force Act. Once passed, the law will make it a bit more difficult for the State Department to continue funding the terror- financing PA.
While the Taylor Force Act is the ostensible reason for Abbas's move, Palestinian sources openly acknowledge that congressional pressure had nothing to do with his decision.
Abbas abruptly ended PA financing of Hamas in retaliation for Hamas's decision to open relations with Abbas's archrival in Fatah, Muhammad Dahlan.
From 1994, when the PA was established, until 2007, when Hamas ousted his US-trained forces from Gaza, Dahlan was the Gaza strongman.
Once one of Abbas's closest cronies, since 2011 Dahlan has been his archenemy. Abbas, now in the twelfth year of his four-year term in office, views Dahlan as the primary threat to his continued reign.
As a consequence, he ousted Dahlan from Fatah and forced him to decamp with his sizable retinue to the UAE. There Dahlan enjoys exceedingly close ties with the Nahyan regime.
The UAE is allied with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi. Both view Hamas's mother organization the Muslim Brotherhood as their mortal foe. As a result, Sisi and the UAE as well as Saudi Arabia sided with Israel in its 2014 war with Hamas.
Since May, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been in open conflict with Qatar. Qatar, which sponsors the Muslim Brotherhood, has long sponsored Hamas as well.
Since the start of the year, the UAE has been interested in prying Hamas away from Qatar. And so with the blessing of his UAE hosts, Dahlan began building ties with Hamas.
Recognizing Dahlan's close ties to the UAE and through it, with Sisi, Hamas, which has been stricken by Sisi's war against it, and particularly Sisi's enforcement of the closure of Gaza's border with Egypt's Sinai, was quick to seize on Dahlan's initiative.
The talks between Dahlan and Sisi on the one hand and Hamas on the other were ratcheted up in April after Abbas cut his funding to Gaza.
In May, Hamas formally cut its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In exchange, Sisi permitted the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to open for longer hours and permitted Gazans to transit Egypt en route to their religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, among other things.
To build its leverage against Abbas, beginning in the spring, Hamas began describing Dahlan as a viable alternative to Abbas. The UAE agreed to begin financing Hamas's budget and to help pay for electricity.
Against this backdrop, it is self-evident that Abbas didn't send his own representatives to Cairo to negotiate a surrender deal with Hamas because his aid cut-off brought Hamas to its knees. Abbas sent his people to Cairo because Hamas's double dealing with Dahlan brought Abbas to his knees.
As for Sisi, Hamas has also played him - and the UAE.
Over the past few months, Hamas has been rebuilding its client relationship with Iran. A senior Hamas delegation visited Tehran last month for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's swearing-in ceremony.
They met there with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and with senior Revolutionary Guards commanders.
A month earlier, senior Hamas terrorist Salah Arouri, who lives under Hezbollah protection in Beirut, paved the way for the reconciliation in a meeting under Hezbollah sponsorship with senior Revolutionary Guards commander Amir Abdollahian.
Following the meeting in Tehran, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar extolled Hamas's relations with Iran as "fantastic." Sinwar also said that Iran is "the largest backer financially and militarily" of Hamas's terrorism apparatus.
Concerned about Tehran's growing influence in Gaza, and through it, the Sinai, where Sisi continues to fight against an Islamic State-backed insurgency, Sisi has an interest in tempering Hamas's client-ties to Tehran.
So just as Abbas has decided to restore financing to Hamas to keep Dahlan at bay, so Sisi has decided to embrace Hamas to keep Iran at bay.
In all cases, of course, Hamas wins.
The fact that Hamas has just won is obvious when we consider the unity deal it just concluded with Fatah.
Hamas made one concession. It agreed to break up its civil governing authority - a body it formed in response to Abbas's decision to cut off funding in April. In exchange for agreeing to disband a body it only formed because Abbas cut off its funding, Hamas receives a full restoration of PA funding. The PA will fund all civil service operations in Gaza. It will pay the salaries of all civil servants and security personnel in Gaza. It will pay salaries to all Hamas terrorists Israel freed from its jails.
In other words, the PA will now be responsible for keeping the lights on and picking up the garbage.
And Hamas will be free to concentrate on preparing for and initiating its next terror war against Israel. It can dig tunnels. It can build missiles. It can expand its operational ties with Hezbollah, Islamic State, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Fatah.
In the wake of Hamas's leadership's meetings in Tehran, Sinwar told reporters that Hamas is now moving full speed ahead toward doing all of these things. Sinwar said that Hamas is "developing our military strength in order to liberate Palestine." He added, "Every day we build missiles and continue military training."
Thousands of people, he said, are working "day and night" to prepare Hamas's next terror war against Israel. And indeed, two weeks ago, two Hamas terrorists were killed when the tunnels they were digging collapsed on them.
Tuesday's surrender ceremonies tell us two things.
First, the notion that Fatah is even remotely interested in defeating Hamas is complete nonsense. For 10 years since its forces were humiliated and routed in Gaza, Fatah has faithfully funded and defended Hamas. Abbas's only concern is staying in charge of his Israeli-protected fiefdom in Ramallah. To this end, he will finance - with US and EU taxpayer monies - and defend another 10 Hamas wars with Israel.
The second lesson we learn from Hamas's victory is that we need to curb our enthusiasm for Sisi and his regime in Egypt, and for his backers in the UAE. Sisi's decision to facilitate and mediate Hamas's newest victory over Fatah shows that his alliance with Israel is tactical and limited in scope. His decision to side with Israel against Hamas during Operation Protective Edge three years ago may not repeat itself in the next war.
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