Impending Dangers for Israel
Dr. Thomas Ice
ÔTherefore all who devour you shall be devoured;
And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
And those who plunder you shall be for plunder,
And all who prey upon you I will give for prey.
For I will restore you to health
And I will heal you of your wounds,Õ declares the Lord,
ÔBecause they have called you an outcast, saying:
ÒIt is Zion; no one cares for her.ÓÕ
—Jeremiah 30:16–17
In the coming
tribulation period, the nation of Israel will be abandoned by all of the
Gentile nations and have nowhere to turn . . . nowhere except to the Lord. Only the Lord God of Israel will care
for Zion. When this occurs in the
tribulation, when Israel can only turn to the Lord, she will. It will be at that moment that the Lord
will rescue His formerly wayward wife.
However, today we see an ever-mounting number of threats on the horizon
that threaten to wipe Israel off of the map. I have a prediction to make! Israel will not only survive but will renew
her relationship with the Lord and become mightily used of Him in the days to
come.
Danger Number One
The Nakba Day
protests started with a bang and involved the breach of the Syrian border for the
first time since the Yom Kipper War in 1973. The Arab observance of Nakba (means ÒdisasterÓ)
Day is May 15th each year and occurs the day after the Israeli
celebration of the day of their independence. On May 15, 2011 Arabs infiltrated the
border of Israel in three places, on the Golan Heights from Syria, from Lebanon,
and the Gaza Strip. In addition to
that, there were major uprisings in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and
Jerusalem.
The Syrian border
breach is seen as the biggest threat.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) was caught off guard as the protesters
rammed a fence and poured into Israel.
The Israeli town of Majdal Shams was overrun with refugees from Syria
until the IDF was able to drive them back into Syria. At least four Arabs were killed and
dozens wounded. At least another
four Arabs were killed and eleven wounded as the IDF, who
were prepared for the assault from Lebanon. These uprisings are
feared by many within Israel as the beginning of a third intifada. There is no doubt that a full court
press is being applied to Israel as they are pressuring them on many fronts.
Danger Number Two
As I write this
article in the middle of May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be
making an important trip to the U. S. A. and will include a meeting with the
White House on May 20. President
Obama is expected to give a speech on May 22 about Israel and the Middle
East. This will be one day before
Netanyahu is supposed to speak to about 10,000 people at the annual AIPAC
meeting and lay out his vision for how Israel should move forward in light of
so many developments. Netanyahu
will address a joint session of Congress on May 23.
The
concern is that Netanyahu will not stand his ground and will be bullied by the
Obama administration and the State Department to give up part of the covenant
Land of Israel to the Arabs. Bill
Koenig, who covers the White House says, ÒThe Orthodox Jewish
leaders that I spoke to locally are very concerned that Netanyahu will sell out
in Washington. They are very
disappointed by his public endorsement and active pursuit of the two-state
solution, which they believe was a violation of trust and even a "cave
in" to U.S. pressure.Ó[1] However, Netanyahu has thus far been
unwavering in keeping Jerusalem under the control of Israel, but one wonders
what the Obama administration, the United Nations, and the European Union have
up their sleeve. ÒMany in the
Jewish, Christian and Arab quarters of the Old City believe the Old City is
going to eventually come under international control, via the United Nations,
in future agreementsÓ[2]
according to Koenig.
Danger Number Three
Toward the end of
May many Arab and Muslim nations will be sending to Gaza Flotilla number two in
an effort to break Israel naval blockade surrounding Gaza. It has been kept a secret just when and
from where the flotilla will be coming, but Flotilla I last year caused a great
international incident when Israel interdicted the group of ships to make sure
they were not smuggling into Gaza weapons and missiles in their fight against
Israel. The world condemned Israel
since they ended up killing a number of the terrorists on one of the boats as
they brutally attacked the Israelis as they boarded their ship. There is not telling what will be in
store when this flotilla arrives this year. When one contemplates the dangers fraught
with this threat in concert with all the other anti-Israel events that are
taking place, it will provide extra pressure on Israel in the eyes of the world
at a time when so many other things threaten GodÕs nation.
Danger Number Four
Samantha Power, a
member of ObamaÕs National Security Council, and considered the architect of
the administrationÕs intervention policy in Libya was described as follows by
Stanley Kurtz:
who shares Noam ChomskyÕs
foreign-policy goals? An
influential presidential adviser whom 1960s revolutionary Tom Hayden treats as
a fellow radical? A White House
official who wrote a book aiming to turn an anti-American, anti-Israel,
Marxist-inspired, world-government-loving United Nations bureaucrat into a
popular hero? Samantha Power,
senior director of multilateral affairs for the National Security Council and
perhaps the principal architect of our current intervention in Libya, is all of
these things.
These
scary-sounding tidbits might be dismissed as isolated Ògotchas.Ó Unfortunately, when we view these radical
outcroppings in the full sweep of her lifeÕs work, Samantha Power emerges as a
patriotÕs nightmare—a woman determined to subordinate AmericaÕs national
sovereignty to an international order largely controlled by leftist
bureaucrats. Superficially, PowerÕs
chief concern is to put a stop to genocide and Òcrimes against humanity.Ó More deeply, her goal is to use our
shared horror at the worst that human beings can do in order to institute an
ever-broadening regime of redistributive transnational governance.[3]
Since Power
believes that American military force should be used in favor of the
Palestinians and against Israel, some analysts believe the real reason for
American intervention in Libya was to set a president for eventual intervention
against Israel in order to impose a solution to that conflict. This sets the stage for the next danger.
Danger Number Five
One
of the biggest threats in years looms in September 2011 when it is expected
that the Palestinians will unilaterally declare themselves to be a sovereign
states with unilaterally declared borders.
Over 130 of
the 192 member states of the United Nations are expected to support the
establishment of a Palestinian state if it is brought up for a vote by the
General Assembly this coming September.
Some believe it could go as high as 170 nations supporting such a
declaration. What would or should
Israel do if this were to occur? It
would likely cause tremendous chaos throughout Israel and the Middle East,
especially with Egypt and other countries in that area now under more radical
control.
Some
have advised Israel to make a unilateral declaration of their own countering
the one made by the Palestinians with borders and territories that Israel would
want to put into place. Some within
Israel have advised the nation to accept the Palestinian declaration and turn
the current conflict into a border war.
However, if Palestine becomes a sovereign state in the eyes of the U.
N., the U. S. A., and the E. U., which is likely, then any incursion into supposed
Palestinian territory could lead to sanctions against Israel and the basis for military
intervention as noted above by Samantha
Power, President ObamaÕs chief adviser on matters like this. Can you imagine the American military
brought in to withstand Israel? Such
a situation would create a disaster.
I think a significant percentage of our troops would refuse to engage in
such an assignment, thus, creating another issue.
Conclusion
Things are moving
as fast as ever all over the world.
In concert with developments relating to Israel, we see the move toward
global governance gaining momentum in every way, every day. We see the ever-increasing merger of
national economies into a global economic system paving the way for the
AntichristÕs temporary future rule.
The European Union, which is likely preparation for the AntichristÕs
Revived Roman Empire, continues to trudge forward. The breath-taking decline of American
Evangelical Christianity into apostasy, with no renewal in sight, continues to
prepare the way for the false religion of the False Prophet and the
Antichrist. We see unprecedented
alliances developing between nations like Russian, Iran, and Turkey, who will one
day attack Israel according to Ezekiel 38 and 39. All of these things coming together into
alignment for the first time in history, as the world is being prepared for
events that will explode into history after the occurrence of the rapture. For many, the world situation appears to
be totally out of reach from GodÕs influence, but such is not the case.
No matter how
chaotic things appear, we know from GodÕs Word that it is He who is in total
control of the world. It is the
Lord who allows fallen mankind to do their thing, build their kingdom before
God intervenes and sets up His kingdom.
The Bible teaches that GodÕs Kingdom will be mediated through a Jewish
carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth. GodÕs
Kingdom will be administered through saved Jewish people from the nation of
Israel and the city of Jerusalem. When
we see the threats and trouble that Israel is in today, we can also be
confident that the God of Israel will triumph in the long run. Israel will not be destroyed as their
enemies hope instead she will prosper!
Maranatha.
ENDNOTES