The World Against Israel
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2016 was the year that the United Nations reinterpreted Israel’s history and sought to divide her land. The Middle East conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians remains the most recognized “stumbling block” in the world today. Through the U.N., the entire world is beckoned to resolve this 69-year dispute—when we use the year of 1948, the date when Israel declared her independence.
UNITED NATIONS HYPOCRISY
Since the formation of the U.N. in 1945, nearly two thirds of its resolutions have been against Israel. In 2016, the U.N. General Assembly adopted 20 anti-Israel resolutions, while passing just four for the rest of the world—one for North Korea, one for Syria, one for Russia and one for Iran.
The misogynistic practices in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and other places that oppress women were not mentioned as violators of women’s rights. But U.N. women chastised Israel as the world’s only violators of women’s rights. Also, the World Health Organization condemned Israel as the world’s only violator of “mental, physical, and environmental health.”
These ridiculous and absurd accusations pale in comparison to the other damnable actions of the U.N. against Israel.
In the fall of 2016, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is charged with safeguarding world heritage sites and history, adopted a resolution condemning Israel for engaging in aggressive actions in East Jerusalem, while referring to the holiest site in Judaism—the Temple Mount and Western Wall—solely by the Islamic names Haram al-Sharif, Al Aqsa Mosque, and Buraq Wall Plaza, negating thousands of years of Jewish and Christian heritage. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad rode the Buraq (winged horse) during the “Night of Ascension” into heaven.
ISRAEL DIVIDED
One the most troubling modern events for Israel transpired on Dec. 23, 2016. The U.N. voted on Security Council Resolution 2334, and the United States abstained from voting. This betrayal by the Obama administration toward Israel fully exposed the eight-year dissatisfaction of former President Obama toward Israel, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It has been the policy of the U.S. government to veto all anti-Israel resolutions at the Security Council. Most of Resolution 2334 refers to “Israeli settlements.” The truth is, this resolution has established legally binding parameters for a two-state solution that Israel will never accept, and this includes giving every inch of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. The resolution clearly states that East Jerusalem is in “Palestinian territory” and that the U.N. Security Council says that it will recognize no changes to the pre-1967 borders. The only exception would be, “those agreed by the parties through negotiation.” Unlike U.N. General Assembly resolutions, the ones issued by the Security Council are considered legally binding on the parties.
In part, Resolution 2334 says the following:
• Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle top the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
• Reiterates its demands that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;
• Underlines that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations.
Israel did not control East Jerusalem prior to the 1967 war; neither did the Palestinians. In 1947, the U.N. voted to partition Israel and Arab Palestine. The Arabs refused to form a new Palestinian nation and instead neighboring Arab armies sought to destroy the soon-coming nation of Israel. In 1948, Israel fought a “War of Independence” and defeated the five confederate Arab nation aggressors that sought her annihilation and extended her borders beyond those granted by the U.N.
From 1949 through 1967, Jordan illegally occupied East Jerusalem and the area now called the West Bank. There was no international outcry at Jordan, or Egypt, for them illegally occupying the area that was rejected by the Palestinians. At the end of the Six-Day War, Israel had successfully defended herself against another Arab confederate attack, which sought to annihilate her. Israel once again gained possession of more land. Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria and the Gaza Strip, with the Sinai, from Egypt, and took access to East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan.
According to international experts, Israel is not illegally occupying territory it gained using defensive force against those who waged war against her.
Stephen Schwebel, a former president of the International Court of Justice, notes that a country acting in self-defense may seize and occupy a territory when necessary to protect itself. He further observes that a state may require, as a condition for its withdrawal, security measures designed to ensure its citizens are not menaced again from the territory.
According to Eugene Rostow, a former undersecretary of State Political Affairs in the Johnson administration, Resolution 242 gives Israel a legal right to be in the West Bank. In the resolution, Rostow noted, “Israel is entitled to administer the territories” it won in 1967 until “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East is achieved.”
Though critical of Israeli policy at times, the United States does not consider settlements as illegal. Here’s an interesting thought when it comes to peace. From 1949 to 1967, when Jews were forbidden to live in the West Bank, the Arabs refused to make peace with Israel. This dispute is not so much about land as it is about Arab-Islamic hatred for the Jews.
HATERS OF GOD
The Bible makes it very clear that those who seek to destroy Israel hate God:
“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee” (Ps. 83:1-5).
Furthermore, God is not pleased with those who seek to divide His land, especially Jerusalem. He will judge the nations that divide His land (Joel 3:2), and curse those that He has appointed to possess His land (Gen. 12:3). Those who will burden themselves with Jerusalem “shall be cut to pieces” (Zech. 12:3).
Jerusalem is the center of all nations: “Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries round about her” (Ezek. 5:5).
Jerusalem is also where God placed His name: “But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there” (II Chron. 6:6).
There are 89 Scriptures that deal with the land of Israel and Jerusalem to be an everlasting possession to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In many of these verses, God makes it very clear that these promises are eternal and will never cease.
“O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: His judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance” (Ps. 105:6-11).
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