The restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part four

This is part four of a six-part newsletter.

In 1762 Charles Wesley published an outstanding hymn “Almighty God of Love” which speaks of the Temple Mount in future prophecy:

       We know, it must be done, for God hath spoke the word,

       All Israel shall their Savior own, to their first state restor’d

       Re-built by his command, Jerusalem shall rise

       Her Temple on Moriah stand again, and touch the skies

Moriah

In King Solomon’s day Mount Moriah was known as having once been the location of the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24). ‘Araunah’ was most probably a Hittite or Hurrian title meaning ‘honored lord/municipal leader.’ The Jebusites were one of Jerusalem’s earlier settlers and the city was once known as Jebus. Araunah’s Jebusite ancestors had probably been living in Jerusalem/Jebus for some time, perhaps going back to days before Joshua.

The word ‘Moriah’ is found in only one other place in Scripture, in Genesis 22:2,14, where ‘one of the mountains’ in ‘the land of Moriah’ (eretz Moriah) is referenced. This site was identified in Abraham’s day as ‘the Mountain of YHVH:’

Considering that Isaiah 2:3 uses the same Hebrew phrase to describe the Temple Mount (וְנַעֲלֶ֣ה אֶל־הַר־יְהוָ֗ה אֶל־בֵּית֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב), there is reliable historical and linguistic support for assuming that the same location is being referred to.

There are more than 144 references in Scriptures specific to the Temple Mount, and 58 of these are prophetic in nature. The Temple Mount is a significant theme in the Scriptures, as well as an important focus in biblical prophecy.

A place with a chosen destiny

The God of Israel explained to Ezekiel the unique nature of the Temple Mount – it is His throne and footstool:

The God of Jacob explains to King Solomon that there is an eternal and abiding divine connection to the Temple Mount: it is where YHVH’s name, eyes and heart abide forever:

The Temple Mount is where the Shekinah (the Glory of YHVH) came to abide. The Glory departed from there in Ezekiel’s day. The Holy Spirit will return to the same location – a rebuilt Temple – in days yet future:

King David tells us that the Temple was built on the Temple Mount in God’s honor, and because He had a special heart-connection to that hill:

Though most followers of Messiah Yeshua are unaware of the present spiritual status and future destiny of the Temple Mount, the Scriptures have much to teach on this matter.

Location, location, location

The exact location of where the House of YHVH was to be built on the Temple Mount was communicated by divine revelation to Gad the prophet-seer (see 2 Samuel 24:11):

The revelation of the exact location of the House of YHVH came in the context of King David’s prideful national census, a portentous deed about which Moses had warned the kings of Israel:

When God established the Temple on the Temple Mount, He was authorizing a spot on the map where Israel would receive atonement and forgiveness for her sins – a place which the whole planet would see, recognize and eventually make pilgrimage to:

Supreme Court at the House of YHVH

King David waxed eloquent about one of the functions of the compound where the House of YHVH was located: it is not only a center of worship, but also the location of the Davidic Supreme Court. This court will one day be international in scope:

A Jewish priority for the House and compound

The Holy Spirit shares His intercessory heart with His followers throughout the earth. This company of day-and-night prayer people cry out to YHVH that He would bring the Jewish people into their international destiny. Israel’s salvation will bear physical fruit, and that fruit of the vine will be drunk by Jewish people, fearless and secure in the courts of the Temple Mount compound:

Jewish ingathering and worship on the Temple Mount

Isaiah’s prophecy describes a massive worldwide aliyah (Jewish return to Israel) which will be accompanied by a divine shofar (ram’s horn). This shofar blast will catalyze the return of the scattered Jewish people, and will culminate in holy Jewish worship on the Temple Mount:

A full Jewish restoration on the Temple Mount

The Temple Mount can be considered the future ground-zero for Jewish restoration – both physically and spiritually:

A holy Jewish nation on a Holy Mountain

The nation of Israel will not only dwell and worship on a Holy Mountain. The entire Jewish people will also be made holy, and this holiness will be internationally recognized:

Gentile participation in Temple Mount celebration, worship and sacrifice

The prophet Isaiah has much to say about the future Temple and events surrounding it. Some beautiful prophetic passages show that believers from the nations will be involved and participating in these events:

Gentile participation will extend to helping in the construction of the House of YHVH:

The nations will also help the scattered Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and to the House of YHVH:

The Temple Mount – a worldwide teaching center

The Temple Mount will be the site of a planet-wide conference center involving both teaching and training (“that we may walk in His paths”). This Temple Mount ministry will have worldwide influence and impact:

YHVH will dwell on the Temple Mount

God who defines Himself as omnipresent (see Psalm 139:7-12; Jeremiah 23:24) will do something nearly inconceivable for mankind: He will localize Himself in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount:

Spiritual activities on the Temple Mount

The Hebrew Scriptures describe many different facets of worship that have occurred on the Temple Mount in times past. Many of these activities will be repeated in the future. Here is a partial list:

         “I will pay my vows to YHVH. May it be in the presence of all His people, in the courtyards of YHVH’s House, in the midst of you, Jerusalem! Praise YAH!” (Psalm 116:18-19)

            “Now these are the ones whom David appointed over the ministry of song in the House of YHVH” (1 Chronicles 6:31)

            “All of these were under the direction of their father to sing in the House of YHVH, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the House of God” (1 Chronicles 25:6)

            “You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival, and gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute, to go to the Mountain of YHVH, to the Rock of Israel” (Isaiah 30:29)

            “YHVH is certain to save me! So we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life at the House of YHVH” (Isaiah 38:20)

            “They have made a noise in the House of YHVH as on the day of an appointed feast” (Lamentations 2:7)

Messianic Jews on the Temple Mount

The New Covenant describes Messianic Jews at home on the Temple Mount. They fasted and prayed there, praised God there and gathered for fellowship, preached the Good News of Yeshua, fell into divine trances there, and did not do anything wrong against the Temple. They saw the Temple as part of their spiritual inheritance:

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part three

This is part three of a six-part newsletter.

Jihad – the sleeping dragon

Once a country is conquered by jihadi armies, those territories are considered as belonging to Islam forever. This Muslim principle is reflected in Jordanian King Abdullah II’s clear declaration regarding the Temple Mount in the summer of 2015: “Al-Aqsa is the entire al-Haram al-Sharif, and we accept neither partnership, nor partition.” The Temple Mount’s former Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri agrees: “Entrance of Jews is permitted as visitors, but not as worshippers. Jews call the place the Temple Mount and they say: ‘It is ours.’ We certainly will not allow them to enter one of our holy sites, to pray there and say that it is theirs.”

According to Israeli intelligence and security expert Brigadier-General (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser (former head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence [AMAN], Palestinian national ideology has some foundational beliefs:

On June 9, 1974, the Palestinian National Council of the PLO approved the ‘Ten Points Program,’ also known as the ‘Phased Plan.’ Significant input for this plan came from North Vietnamese top General Võ Nguyên Giáp, who trained the PLO how to use diplomacy and guile in order to gain a territorial foothold in Israel, while simultaneously pursuing armed struggle as the main method of liberating that country. This strategy allowed and allows the PLO to work toward their goals in phases while disguising their real purpose, permit strategic deception, and give the appearance of moderation.

The retired President of Israel’s Supreme Court, Justice Moshe Landau (in an interview with Ha’aretz Magazine, October 6, 2000), makes the same point: “From the point of view of Islam, it is impossible to recognize the sovereignty of the Jews in any part of the countries which Islam claims for itself . . . As far as Islam is concerned, the entire land of Israel is waqf land. And legal experts know [what] waqf land means: it is property which is sanctified to Allah. And that is the reason that for Arabs/Muslims it is forbidden to give the Jews a foothold of control in this land, and they must be driven out from here.”

All of the Palestinian leadership – whether Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestinian Authority, or Arab-Israeli Members of Knesset – have a bottom line: what the Jews call ‘the state of Israel’ will never ultimately belong to the Jews. It is Islamic territory forever. As PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat declared on May 10, 1994 to a Muslim audience in a Johannesburg mosque: “The Jihad will continue . . . Our main battle is Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the first shrine of the Muslims. . . (N)ot the permanent state of Israel – no! It is the permanent state of Palestine . . . You have to come, and to fight and to start the Jihad to liberate Jerusalem, your first shrine . . . It is not their capital, it is our capital!”

Waqf spokesman Adnan Husseini says that the issue of Jewish control of the Temple Mount is “a closed file . . . The issue has been settled by Allah, and there will be no negotiations . . . Moslems can't discuss it and can't make any compromise. This is the stance that every Palestinian and Arab and Moslem will adopt, forever . . . If [the Jews] want to dream of something that was here 3,000 years ago, then we will dream about the situation before 1948, when there was no State of Israel” (in Faithful to the bitter end? Michael S. Arnold, August 18, 2000).

The undulating conflict between 1967 and 2022 between Israel and the Palestinians over supposedly ‘status quo’ issues becomes clearer when realistically viewed through this Islamic lens: to the Palestinians and the majority of Islamic leaders and theologians, all solutions except jihad are transitory, and all negotiations between the Jewish state and the Palestinians are brief and will soon vanish – like al-Aqsa’s temporary captivity at the hands of Israeli unbelievers.

The status quo keeps changing

World media often refers to something called ‘the status quo’ when talking about the Temple Mount. Their talking points focus on the hypothesis that the Jewish state is constantly ‘violating the status quo’ in its policies regarding the Temple Mount. What does this mean, practically speaking, and how does it interface with what is happening today on the Temple Mount?

To understand the term ‘status quo,’ we have to go back in history to 1054, when the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches went through a major split – what is known as ‘the Great Schism.’ In the Land of Israel, Roman Catholics/Franciscans quickly got the upper hand over the Greeks, bolstered by an infusion of European knights in the First Crusade. The Catholics received a position of authority known as the Custody of the Holy Land in 1217. When the Ottoman Turks conquered the Holy Land in 1517, the weakness and infighting of the Christian churches catalyzed both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox to appeal to the Muslim Turks, seeking special protection and privileges. Control of Christian Holy Sites would ping-pong back and forth between these two Christian streams and violent clashes were not uncommon. Bribes to the Sultan in Istanbul often decided the outcome.

A stop-gap mechanism developed, later called ‘the Status Quo,’ which involved Turkish-authorized and enforced decrees (the ‘firman’) – legal documents laying out the rights, responsibilities and limitations of opposing Christian parties at a particular moment in history. The initial steps in this direction were negotiations held in January, 1699 at Carlowitz, Szerem (modern Serbia) between Leopold Emperor of Germany and Mustafa II, the Turkish Sultan.

In 1637 the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophanes III obtained a firman from Sultan Murad IV recognizing Orthodox control of significant areas of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1675 Sultan Mehmed IV granted a firman ordering the removal of Franciscan monks from the Holy Sepulchre and Rotunda. During Easter Holy Week 1757, Orthodox Christians annexed parts of the Franciscan-controlled church, leading Sultan Osman III to write a 1757 decree forming the basis of what was later called ‘the status quo.’

In 1852 Napoleon III demanded that the Sultan recognize France as the protector of Christian monks and pilgrims in the Holy Places, sending a French warship toward Istanbul. Tsar Nicholas I, champion of the Greek Orthodox, insisted on Russia being confirmed by the Sultan as the protector of the Holy Places and of all Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. When the Sultan dragged his feet in responding, a Russian army invaded the Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia (modern Romania) in July 1853. The Turks declared war (the Crimean War) and in November the Russians destroyed a Turkish fleet at Sinope in the Black Sea. This war was jump-started over the issue of the ‘status quo’ in Jerusalem!

In the meantime, Ottoman Turkish Sultan Abdulmejid I issued firmans in 1850, 1852 and 1853 in favor of his Protestant subjects granting them specific rights and protections. These firmans received international recognition in Article 9 of the Treaty of Paris (1856).

The first time we run into the term ‘status quo’ as connected to the Holy Places is in Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878): “The rights conceded to France are expressly reserved, it being well understood that the status quo with respect to the Holy Places shall not be seriously affected in any way.” This Status Quo has, with ups and downs, remained largely intact from 1757 to 1967. It is known in legalese as “The Ottoman Status Quo Arrangement in the Holy Places.”

How did Israel’s June 1967 liberation of Jerusalem affect these centuries-old patterns, and how did this issue morph into a significant international anti-Israel weapon vis-à-vis the Temple Mount?

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (The more things change, the more they stay the same)

On June 7, 1967 Israeli paratroopers wept as their hands touched the ancient stones of the Western Wall. No one on that day imagined or expected that the State of Israel would soon continue the centuries-old discrimination against Jews, banning them from ascending to and praying on the Temple Mount. But this is exactly what happened.

At 10:00 am on June 7, then-commander of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade Motta Gur had radioed from his half-track: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” Yet within a few minutes IDF Defense Minister Moshe Dayan radioed Gur, demanding that he immediately remove the Israeli flag from the Temple Mount’s Dome of the Rock, yelling “Do you want to set the Middle East on fire?”

These two diametrically opposed responses sum up the present quandary at the Temple Mount.

“Even as Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces Shlomo Goren famously stood at the newly liberated Western Wall and blew the shofar, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, contemplating his victory from nearby Mount Scopus, is said to have wondered, ‘What do we need all this Vatican for?’ For Rabbi Goren, the Jews had rightfully recovered their property, and a keystone of the Jewish faith. For Dayan, Israel was now burdened with a foreign religious artifact; the best it could do was to try not to upset Muslim sensitivities. These contrasting attitudes reflect two opposite approaches to Zionism: One that sees in it the partial fulfillment of the biblical vision of Jewish redemption, and one that sees in it a strictly practical answer to the problem of anti-Semitism and Jewish defenselessness” (in We Forget Thee, Jerusalem; Azure no. 30, Autumn 5768 / 2007)

Within a few days on June 14, 1967, “huge waves of people, more than 200,000 [Israelis], ascended to the last remnant of the Western Wall . . . on the holiday of Shavuot [Feast of Weeks/Pentecost]."

But on June 17, 1967 Defense Minister Moshe Dayan met with the Temple Mount’s Supreme Muslim Council (the waqf) and unilaterally authorized a new metamorphosis of the ‘status quo’ – that Jews who had liberated Jerusalem from centuries-long control by Islamic dictatorships, would themselves not be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount, and that the Muslim Waqf would remain in charge of the compound.

The Sheriff comes to al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic for the Temple Mount compound)

Dayan described in some detail his meeting with the Waqf on that day. His recounting of that meeting is a riveting read. Here are a few excerpts:

Dayan’s new-and-improved status quo allowed for non-Muslims (including Jews and Christians) to ascend to the Temple Mount as tourists, but not as worshippers. Dayan was not an aficionado of Isaiah’s Messianic vision stressing the importance of Jewish and Gentile prayer issuing from the Temple Mount: “For My House will be called a House of Prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).

An April 2014 report by the Knesset Research and Information Center states that Dayan was attempting “to neutralize, as far as possible, the religious aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict. He believed that leaving the management of the Temple Mount in the hands of the Muslim authorities would prevent an uprising in the territories of Judea and Samaria and in the other Muslim countries and would facilitate adaptation to Israeli control.”

Dayan’s new status-quo was then ratified by the Israeli Ministerial Committee on Holy Sites (Governmental Decision #761, August 20, 1967). It ordered Major General Shlomo Goren (then the IDF Chief Rabbi), by way of the Defense Minister and Chief of Staff to “cease all actions connected to the organization of [Jewish] prayer, measurements, and the like on the Temple Mount.” It added that, “When Jewish visitors enter through the gates of the Temple Mount for the sake of prayer, they shall be redirected by defense forces to the Western Wall.”  Dayan elaborates: “Although, understandably, no minister wished to take a formal position stating baldly that Jews were forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount, it was decided to ‘maintain the current policy,’ which in fact banned them from doing so. It was evident that if we did not prevent Jews from praying in what was now a mosque compound, matters would get out of hand and lead to a religious clash.” Dayan was nearly accurate: Ministers Zvi Warhaftig and Menahem Begin opposed this government decision.

The Israeli Supreme Court created a legal framework stating that, while Jews had the right to pray on the Temple Mount, the police hold the authority to prevent the realization of that right. In the words of then-Chief Justice Aharon Barak, “The fundamental point from which we begin here, is that every Jew possesses the right to ascend the Temple Mount, pray there, and commune with his Creator. This is an inherent part of religious freedom. This is inherently part of freedom of speech . . . As with all human rights, this one is not fully absolute. It is a relative right . . . In a place where the near-certainty exists that real damage will be inflicted on the public interest, if the human right to freedom of worship and expression are realized, we are permitted to restrict the human right, for the sake of safeguarding public order” (SCJ 2725/93, Gershon Solomon vs. the Chief Commander of the Jerusalem District).

“It’s true,” [Member of Knesset Aryeh Eldad] said, “that the original sin was when the Jewish People, immediately after the Six Day War in 1967, ceded its hold on the Temple Mount in an unholy alliance between the Chief Rabbinate and Moshe Dayan – each side for its own reasons.”

Dayan’s status quo arrangement was a continuation of what the Jordanian police permitted between 1950 and 1967 – the same specific hours of visitation allowed for non-Muslims (though now, Jews were also allowed to visit).

Nadav Shragai, senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, adds a closing note: “In granting Jews the right to visit the Temple Mount, Moshe Dayan sought to mitigate the power of Jewish demands for organized worship and religious control at the site. In granting administrative control to Muslims on the Temple Mount, he believed he was mitigating the power of the site as a center for Palestinian nationalism.”

Morphing the Temple Mount into the Western Wall

A decision was taken by top Israeli government leaders and reflected in Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s statement to the Israeli Knesset on June 12, 1967: “Jerusalem has been reunified. For the first time since the establishment of the State, Jews pray at the Western Wall, the relic of our holy Temple and our historic past, and at Rachel's Tomb. For the first time in our generation, Jews can pray at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron, the City of the Patriarchs. The prophecy has been fulfilled: ‘There is recompense for the work, the sons have returned to their borders’” [Jeremiah 31:17].

For over 3,400 years Jewish people had been focused on the Temple Mount: “Come, let’s go up to the Mountain of YHVH, to the House of the God of Jacob” (Isaiah 2:3). But now the longed-for place of prayer and the fulfilment of prophecy would instead be connected to the Western Wall. The western supporting wall for one side of the large Temple Mount compound would become the central focus of Jewish religious practice. For the Jewish religious consciousness, the Western Wall would come to represent and replace the Temple Mount.  During the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a small prayer space was constructed outside of the Temple Mount in 1550 for the Jews, who were forbidden by Suleiman from ascending to the Temple Mount (for more background, see https://davidstent.org/the-restoration-of-jerusalem-and-the-temple-mount-part-two/; ‘Saladin and Suleiman’). Now Israel’s government was about to start streaming its own people away from the Temple Mount and into Suleiman’s ersatz prayer court. An Israeli government decision was quickly taken to expand the small walkway into a fairly large modern plaza.

“Do not fear the people of the land!” (Numbers 14:9)

This spiritual volte-face by Israel’s government hoped to postpone (or even avoid altogether) the unpleasant necessity of having to deal with the biblical and historical role of the Temple Mount in Jewish history. It was also fear-based – continued anxiety was expressed in many forums about how Palestinian Muslims (and international ones) might respond, were Israeli Jews to pray on the site on Solomon’s Temple compound – where Isaiah and Yeshua once ministered.

Such concerns are not new. Indeed they predate the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. In a 1929 British Mandate handbook published just prior to Arab riots which resulted in 133 Jewish casualties, the author wrote of an attempt to secure the formal transfer of the Western Wall to Jewish ownership four years previously. He noted that “the Military Governor . . . discouraged the pursuit of the matter in view of the sensitive state of Arab opinion.”

Some Israeli lawyers use the phrase “the severe political consequences of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.”

Israeli Supreme Court Judge Alfred Witkon says regarding Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount: “The situation is extraordinary, and I doubt whether there is a case akin to it in the history of our country or in the world. The situation is delicate and dangerous on an inter-religious basis, and the site is explosive. It would be foolish not to take into account the effects and the cost in manpower that the granting of the petitioners’ petition would entail.”

Israeli journalist Arnon Segal points out that “the ongoing inability to enforce Israeli law is the failure of the government to implement freedom of worship for Jews on the Temple Mount, for fear that the realization of this right would lead to bloodshed”  (“Police Officer: It’s Strange that Jews Can’t Pray on the Temple Mount,” Makor Rishon, October 10, 2014).

There is no question that the dynamic of fear has influenced some Israeli leaders.

There is a scholarly consensus that since 1967 Israeli laws regarding freedom of worship have been blatantly violated by Palestinians on the Temple Mount and have found to be not enforceable. From that perspective, Israel’s sovereignty has not been fully realized. 

Over the past century Palestinian leadership has continued to stir up riot and murder through falsely accusing Israel and the Jews of planning to destroy the al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. A few examples would include:

Yigal Carmon, former IDF Colonel and head of AMAN (Israel Military Intelligence Service) under Yitzhak Rabin draws conclusions based on Palestinian actions and strategies: Carmon “no longer believes that the idea of two states is feasible. In his view no solution of any kind for the Israel-Palestinian conflict can be envisaged in the foreseeable future.” (in ‘Willful Blindness and the Mistake of Underestimation: The Oslo Gamble’ by Joel Fishman and Yossi Kuperwasser; Spring 2020).

Friends and enemies

In Muslim medieval Spain, an Islamic philosopher, theologian and historian named Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm (994-1064 A.D.) made some astute observations in his Book of Morals and Conduct [Kitāb Al-Akhlâq wa’l-Siyar]:

As the world moves forward to the return of Messiah Yeshua and the restoration of Jerusalem, it will focus more and more on the Temple Mount. Zechariah 12:3 tells us that Jerusalem will become a heavy stone for all the people. Today’s fast-moving developments regarding this precious and prophetic piece of real estate point to days of challenge, shaking and promise. 

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part Two

This is part two of a six-part newsletter.

The invasion and occupation of Israel by jihadi forces in the 630’s A.D. introduced the new spiritual dynamic of Islamist spiritual colonialism. For the next 1,500 years Islam’s own form of Replacement Theology (combining both anti-Jewish and anti-Christian teachings) ran roughshod over biblical truths, morphing them into spiritual counterfeits. A more in-depth analysis of these changes can be found in the book ‘Jews, Arabs and the Middle East: A Messianic Perspective.’

Islam moved the spiritual goalposts, defining Judaism and Christianity as profanations of Muhammad’s ‘pure teaching,’ renaming and Islamizing Jewish territories, holy places, patriarchs, prophets and kings. As well as ethnic cleansing (when Islam banished all Jews from the Arabian Peninsula), Muslim dictators forced major population groups in the Middle East and south-central Europe to either convert to Islam or to face Sayf al-Islām – the sword of Islam. Arabic became the mandatory language, and Islam became the master religion. Hundreds of pre-existing ethnic groups across North Africa and the Middle East were forced to redefine themselves as Arabs, rather than Moroccan Berbers, Lebanese Phoenicians, Syrian Arameans, Coptic Egyptians, Iraqi Assyrians, etc. We will now consider the Islamization of the Land of Israel and specifically of the Temple Mount.

The wisdom of Solomon

One of the first things Islamic Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb did upon entering the city of Jerusalem/Aelia, was to make his personal pilgrimage to the rock (al-Saḵrah) around which King Solomon’s Temple had been built. Based on its location, the Caliph wanted to place a Muslim prayer house on top of the area, thus claiming it for Islam :

Building an Islamic mosque on Jewish ruins

‘The Jewish way’ – as Caliph `Umar bin al-Khattāb described it to Ka‘b al-Aḥbār – involved the honoring of the physical location where the Holy of Holies once was located. This tradition was codified over 400 years before the interaction of al-Khattāb and Ka‘b, as evidenced by this quote from the Mishna, Seder Zera’im, Tractate Berachot, chapter 9:5:

The Islamic quotes presented above shed light on the perspectives and strategies of the first Muslim rulers regarding the Temple Mount:

Islam showed itself to be Replacement Theology (RT) on steroids. Whereas as Christian RT allegorized Jewish gifts and calling (violating Romans 11:28-29), teaching that God had finished with the Jews and that Israel’s chosen status now meant ‘chosen for exile and persecution,’ Islamic Replacement Theology used the same psyops against BOTH Jews and Christians, claiming that both groups were now under Allah’s judgment and were destined to become victims and slaves of Islam. 

Clash of the Caliphs

About 638 A.D. Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb took possession of Jerusalem. He established an initial prayer house on the Temple Mount on the spot where he ascertained were the ruins of Solomon’s Temple. But it was a small and unimpressive mosque. The Frankish (French) pilgrim Bishop Arculf visited Jerusalem between 670-690 A.D. and wrote:  “On the spot where the Temple once stood, near the eastern wall, the Saracens have now erected a square house of prayer, in a rough manner, by raising beams and planks upon some remains of old ruins. This is their place of worship, and it is said that it will hold about three thousand men.” But soon the clash of power politics between competing leaders in the Muslim world caused Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to take on an importance that its original Islamic founders would never have imagined possible. The small prayer house would soon be giving way to a large and splendid prayer hall known as Jami' Al-Aqsa.

After Muhammad’s death, jostling over succession turned into civil war. The first Umayyad caliph Mu’awiya I (reigned 661–680) passed on hereditary succession to his son Yazīd I who lived in Syria. This decision was actively opposed by Caliph Abd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr of Mecca. According to famed jurist and theologian Sheikh Ibn Taymiyyah,  Caliph Ibn al-Zubayr revolted against the Umayyad Dynasty which was located in Damascus, blockading the roads leading to the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. According to Shi’ite historian al-Yaʿqūbī,  the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik of Damascus then prevented his subjects from travelling to Mecca because al-Zubayr was forcing those pilgrims to take a rebel bayʿah (a pledge of allegiance) to the Meccan upstart:

Faking history

Like Israelite King Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12:25-33, who set up a syncretistic altar and priesthood at Dan for the Ten Tribes in  “the month that he had devised in his own heart,” so Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik established a ‘pious forgery’ – a substitute hajj pilgrimage to the Temple Mount instead of to Mecca, to a falsely labeled mosque that he now chose to call Jami' Al-Aqsa (the Distant or al-Aqsa mosque). The original ‘Distant Mosque’ (al-Aqsa) was located in al-Juʽranah, Arabia (see https://davidstent.org/7719-2/), but now for political reasons it was morphed into a new ‘Distant Mosque’ (al-Aqsa) on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The Night Journey (al-’Isrā’ wal-Miʿrāj) legend was altered and falsified – Muhammad now flew to Jerusalem, landed on the Temple Mount and from there ascended to heaven.

After Mecca’s Caliph Ibn al-Zubayr was slain by enemies in 692 A.D. during the Siege of Mecca, the Umayyads began to back-pedal on Jerusalem’s importance and it began to recede, both theologically and politically.

But, as Winston Churchill traditionally said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste!” The new legend of Muhammad’s ascent to the seventh heaven (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 8, Number 345) paved the way to introduce new theological symbolism and powerful political meaning: During Muhammad’s supposed ascent, he was joined by the prophets of the eclipsed religions – Judaism and Christianity. Adam, Jesus, Seth, Joseph, Aaron, Moses, and Abraham all gathered together in heaven, next to Allah’s throne, where they prayed behind Muhammad. Thus Judaism and Christianity were symbolically passing the baton of leadership on to Islam right in front of the Throne of Glory. This supposed revelation about the coronation of Islam was powerful propaganda, intending to showing its superiority to its rejected step-sisters Judaism and Christianity.

Jerusalem was now being shaped by Islamic theologians and leaders into a powerful propagandistic tool in the fight against both Judaism and Christianity.

The architecture of the new Dome of the Rock was crafted accordingly. It would be placed in the center of the Temple Mount, so that circumambulation (walking around the building as an act of liturgy) could take place around it. The Dome was built with eight walls, double the holiness of Mecca’s Ka’ba which has only four walls.

The establishment of these ersatz buildings, names and traditions was part and parcel of a wave of spiritual deception and sleight-of-hand – nefarious satanic strategies vis-à-vis Israel, the Jewish people, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Massacres, mosques and the Temple of the Lord

The Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in July 1099 was described by Muslim politician and chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi in his Damascus Chronicles of the Crusades (written just after 1100 A.D.). Conservatively speaking, between 3,000 and 10,000 Muslims were massacred on the Temple Mount. The Jews of Jerusalem (numbering several hundred) gathered in their synagogue (probably the ‘Cave’ synagogue at Warren’s Gate, abutting the Temple Mount), which was then burnt down by the Franks (French Germans):

The Crusaders renamed the Dome of the Rock as Templum Domini (the Temple of the Lord), and the al Aqsa mosque was renamed Templum Solomonis (the Temple of Solomon). They were then established as churches. The Temple Mount was declared off-limits to both Jews and Muslims. As far as the Crusaders were concerned, the Christian Church was the New Israel, and there would be no restoration of the Jewish people or of the Jewish nature of the Temple Mount.

Saladin and Suleiman

The Ayyubid Kurdish Sultan Saladin (Arabic, Ṣalāḥ ud-Dīn) conquered Crusader Jerusalem in October 1187 A.D. According to poet and traveler Rabbi Yehuda al-Ḥarizi, Saladin issued a manifesto in 1190 calling on Jews to return to Jerusalem and settle there (see ‘Saladin’ in the Encyclopedia Judaica).  Al- Ḥarizi compared Saladin's decree to the one issued by the Cyrus the Great over 1,600 years earlier. Permission was granted by Saladin to erect a synagogue on the Temple Mount, but within a few years that permission was rescinded. For 600 years after that point, the Temple Mount was off-limits to Jews.

Sultan Suleiman I (the Magnificent, 1494-1566) encouraged European Jews, especially the exiles from Spain and Portugal, to settle in Jerusalem. In 1550 he also instructed his chief court architect, Sinan Pasha, to design and oversee the building of an area for Jewish prayer in an alley abutting the Western [retaining] Wall of the Temple Mount. At that point in time all non-Muslims were legally prevented from entering the Temple Mount. A royal decree or firman was issued guaranteeing for all times the right of Jews to pray at this Western Wall. The Jewish prayer area was quite humble in dimension – only 4 meters wide and 28 meters long, occupying less than six percent of the Western Wall's total length of 488 meters. This small area could accommodate at most a few hundred people.

Mishnah commentator Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro, wrote after 1488 A.D. in one of his letters from Jerusalem: “No Jew is allowed to enter the site of the Holy Temple . . .  Jews have refused to enter these areas because of their uncleanliness.” One of the Rabbi’s students added in 1495 A.D. that “in any event, the Muslims would not permit [any Jew] to enter their holy place.”

Up to 1839 the Turkish authorities enforced an absolute ban on all non-Muslims to the Temple Mount. In 1839, following the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms and also due to British pressure, non-Muslims were permitted to enter Temple Mount, but only with special permission of the governor.

The entire Islamic and Crusader periods upheld stringent edicts forbidding Jews from ascending to or praying on the Temple Mount, while at the same time ‘honoring’ the Jewish kings and prophets who once walked through the ancient Temple precincts.

Rule Britannia

When Britain conquered Jerusalem on December 11, 1917 General Sir Edmund Allenby declared from the steps of ‘David’s Tower,’ close to the Jaffa Gate and Christ Church:

He then mentioned Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, the mausoleum in Hebron (to be placed under exclusive Moslem control), the Holy Sepulchre “in remembrance of the magnanimous act of the Caliph Omar, who protected that church.” Allenby made no references to any Jewish holy places. This was not surprising, since the previous Muslim conquerors had long since removed any Jewish connections to those sites, making those places Islamic and not Jewish.

Allenby stated in his official report that “the Mosque of Omar [the Temple Mount] and the area around it have been placed under Moslem control, and a military cordon of Mohammedan officers and soldiers has been established around the mosque. Orders have been issued that no non-Moslem is to pass within the cordon without permission of the Military Governor and the Moslem in charge.” Allenby’s military order in one fell swoop invalidated the abovementioned 60-year-old British-influenced policy from 1839 which granted free Temple Mount access to anyone. Christian groups in England strongly protested and, as a result, the British Cabinet canceled this order three months later. Free access would remain in force for more than ten years. However, after the 1929 Islamist riots against the Jews, the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini closed the Temple Mount to all non-Muslims. The British mandatory government condoned this closure order as far as Jews were concerned, and so Jews were barred from the Temple Mount for the next 38 years.

The 1934 King’s Order-in-Council issued by the government authorities of Mandatory Palestine regulated the legal situation of the Temple Mount by confirming the Ottoman religious status quo regarding sovereignty.

Britain’s Mandate policy vacillated regarding Jewish access to the Temple Mount. In the end it affirmed Islam’s long-standing policies which prevented Jews from ascending to or praying on the Temple Mount. England simply passed the buck, kicking the can down the road by validating Ottoman anti-Jewish precedent and policies.

Jordan, the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives

On May 28, 1948, toward the conclusion of Israel’s War of Independence, Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter surrendered and the Temple Mount fell under control of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. The entire Jewish population of Jerusalem’s Old City was exiled, the entire Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was smashed to bits tombstone by tombstone, and for nineteen years no Jew was allowed to approach the Temple Mount or the Western Wall. This absolute ban was strictly enforced, despite provisions in the Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement of 3 April 1949, Article 8, that called for “free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives.” Jewish visitors, no matter what their nationality, were forbidden from approaching the Temple Mount or entering the Old City of Jerusalem or ascending the Mount of Olives.

This state of affairs continued until June 7, 1967 when Israeli paratroopers led by Colonel Motta Gur crashed through the Lion’s Gate, wheeled left and charged up onto the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount is in our hands

Gur radioed from his half-track to HQ: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” The last time Jews had sovereignly controlled the Temple Mount had been over 1,800 years previous. Gur radioed headquarters: “The Temple Mount is in our hands.” IDF Paratrooper Brigade Chief Communications Officer Ezra Orni, and Chief Intelligence Officer Arik Achmon requested and received Gur’s permission to hang the Israeli flag over the Dome of the Rock. They entered the building, climbed up to any outer balcony and hung the flag outside on an available crescent-crowned pole. IDF Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was watching the scene through binoculars from Mount Scopus. He urgently radioed Gur and demanded: “Do you want to set the Middle East on fire?” The flag was removed. The paratroopers were soon joined by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief army chaplain, who blew a resounding blast on the shofar (ram's horn) and pronounced an ancient Jewish prayer: “Blessed are You our God, who comforts Zion and builds Jerusalem!”

Next to show up at the Western Wall was Dayan, who read a statement to the press: “We have returned to the holiest of our sites and will never again be separated from it. To our Arab neighbors, Israel extends the hand of peace; and to the peoples of all faiths we guarantee full freedom of worship and of religious rights. We have come not to conquer the holy places of others, nor to diminish their religious rights, but to ensure the unity of the city and to live in it with others in harmony.”

Many Israelis saw the freeing of Jerusalem and of the Temple Mount as a miraculous deliverance of biblical and messianic proportions. A few days after the war over 200,000 Jews flocked to the Western Wall – the first mass Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple Mount in over 1800 years.

Ten days after the Temple Mount and the Western Wall were liberated, Dayan met with the Muslim religious authorities (the Waqf) of Jerusalem in the al-Aqsa Mosque. He announced to them that the Muslim authorities would be in complete charge of all religious activities in the mosques on the Temple Mount. Jews would have free access to the Temple Mount but would not be allowed to pray there. Jews could pray at the Western Wall.  The Israeli government subsequently accepted Dayan’s decision that forbade Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. The rule was that Muslims pray on the top of the mountain while Jews pray below at the Western Wall. The Israeli government wanted to reassure the world that it would not take unilateral measures regarding the Temple Mount's sovereignty, but would leave this to be determined in final status negotiations. Israel prohibited the flying of an Israeli flag over the site, and refrained from extending its own laws governing Holy Places to the Temple Mount.

With this single decision Dayan created the basis for a status quo situation that has existed up to the present day. Yossi Klein Halevi notes: Israel jumped “from an unplanned victory to a spontaneous concession. No cabinet meeting authorized Dayan’s move. The Defense Minister simply took advantage of his popularity within the Israeli public to manage Israel’s most sensitive religious problem – an arrangement that has persisted ever since.”

Professor Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli Minister of the Public Security, wryly said in the year 2000 “More than we are sovereigns over the Temple Mount, today we are its hostages.”

Does Jewish restoration entail the restoration of the Temple Mount?

Someone once noted that it is easier to get onto the back of a tiger in order to ride him, that to get off of him. The amazing miracle of God’s restoration of His people – albeit partial, and albeit without the national indwelling of the Holy Spirit – carries with it some challenging questions. Since the Return to Zion involves our nation’s return to the Temple Mount, how should we then think and plan regarding the Temple Mount? Since the nations of the Middle East view the restoration of the Temple Mount and its Jewish calling as a casus belli (a cause leading to war), how should we handle and proactively respond to such Islamist threats?

“Many appeals have been made to Israel's Supreme Court to permit Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. Despite the 1967 Law for the Protection of Holy Places which allows free access and freedom of worship to all religions everywhere, Jews and Christians are prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount, ostensibly to ensure public order. As Justice Menachem Elon, Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, explained, this prohibition was created because ‘the Temple Mount possessed extraordinary sensitivity that has no parallel anywhere.’”

The famous IDF General Moshe Dayan was concerned that a Jewish reclamation of the Temple Mount could lead to all-out Islamist jihad against Israel. He was also wary about what a zealous Judaism might catalyze were it to move in a xenophobic and totalitarian direction regarding both the Temple Mount and the Jewish state’s citizens.

Yet the Jewish people have a biblical calling to be a nation of prayer, a nation of priests, and a nation of teachers of both God’s word and God’s ways to the nations. Isaiah 2:1-4 ties that calling to a piece of real estate called the Temple Mount:

How can Israel move toward the fulfilment of that divine calling while avoiding the minefields about which Moshe Dayan was concerned? Is such an outcome even possible?

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount - Part One

The consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem revolve around God’s promises to Jacob:

How would this happen? When would this happen? These questions captivated the hearts of the Hebrew prophets, as Simon Peter tells us: “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Messiah in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Messiah and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).

The prophesied restoration of Jerusalem includes the future defeat of Israel’s foes – all those who oppose Jewish return and redemption:

In our day international opposition to these core biblical promises is the daily bread of most nations, whose leaders and analysts are blind to God’s heart and strategies. Superpowers, diplomats and politicians, rabbis and imams – an absolute majority fail to grasp sober biblical realities here.

Jerusalem of Gold

On Tuesday, January 3, 2023 Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir paid a quick early-morning visit to the Temple Mount (also known in Arabic as al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf – ‘the Noble Sanctuary).

International condemnation of the move immediately exploded. China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE, one of the co-signers of the Abraham Accords ‘peace process’) catalyzed a possible United Nations Security Council condemnation of Israel in response.

According to US State Department spokesman Ned Price, such Jewish visits to the Temple Mount by Members of Knesset are unacceptable violations of the status quo which will set back the prospects for a two-state solution. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi described Ben-Gvir’s visit as a “dangerous provocative act,” part of “illegal Israeli measures that are undermining peace prospects  . . . and can only cause more violence.” UAE described the visit as part of “serious and provocative violations taking place there.”

Historically speaking, visits by Israeli politicians to the Temple Mount may not be common, but neither are they illegal. In October 2005 Israel’s Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra visited the Temple Mount as part of his security responsibilities and Palestinian Arabs did not respond with violence. On October 15, 2000 then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was interviewed on ABC television, stating that visits by Israeli Members of Knesset to the Temple Mount are “part of the legal right. It’s part of freedom of access to holy sites by everyone . . .  We are an open society, it is in the middle of our capital, and we cannot forbid it.”

A ‘politically correct’ world has come to the conclusion that Jewish prayer (or even Jewish physical presence on the Temple Mount) is illegal, dangerous, provocative and unacceptable. All diplomatic talking heads of the world are in agreement about this. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has added fuel to the fire with his statement regarding Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount: “Al-Aqsa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They [i.e. Jews] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”

Roman roots

At the time of the Babylonian invasion of Israel and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (about 598 B.C.), Nebuchadnezzar banished the bulk of Jerusalem’s Jews to mournful exile by the rivers of Babylon. But at the same time a remnant was left in Zion: “The king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land, and put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon” (Jeremiah 40:7).

Roman Emperor Aelius Hadrianus (better known as Hadrian) took a more obsessive approach after the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 A.D.), issuing an edict banning Jews from living in Jerusalem or coming close enough to even see the city.  In Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History (Book IV; chapter 6; 2-4), Hadrian’s decree is described:

Justin Martyr in his First Apology (Chapter 47; written 155-157 A.D.) refers to Hadrian’s edict exiling all Jews from Jerusalem on pain of death:

The first nation to forbid Jews from living in Jerusalem or ascending to the Temple Mount was the Roman nation.

Byzantine alterations

The anonymous Bordeaux Pilgrim arrived in Jerusalem in 333 A.D. while Constantine the Great was on the Byzantine throne. In his Itinerarium Burdigalense, he mentioned that Jews were only allowed into Jerusalem once a year (probably on the Ninth of Av) to ascend to the Temple Mount and mourn over its destruction (probably reading Jeremiah’s Lamentations). Here is his description of the Temple Mount: “There are two statues of Hadrian. Not far from the statues is a pierced stone to which the Jews comes every year and they anoint it and they lament with a groan and they tear their garments and then they withdraw.” Hadrian’s total ban of Jews from the Temple Mount was preserved by Constantine with only slight modifications.

Toward the end of the Byzantine period (circa 630 A.D.) Emperor Heraclius arrived at Jerusalem, defeating the Persian invaders and massacring Zion’s Jews. These events are described in ‘The Annals of Eutychius of Alexandria’ (10th c. A.D. – chapter 18; part 2; 6-8):

The Christian Byzantine Empire in Constantinople continued Hadrianic Roman policies, forbidding Jews from living in Jerusalem or going up to the Temple Mount.

It might surprise some to discover that, during Byzantine rule, Christian religious focus in Jerusalem was not on the Temple Mount. Much of the compound had actually been turned into a garbage dump, though remains of a possible small church mosaic were discovered there by Robert Hamilton in 1938-42. But there was fear, as Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem expressed, that the Jews would once again try to rebuild their Temple.

Under Byzantine rule, two things were crystal-clear:

Christian (and later, Muslim) fears that there might be a future connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount was expressed also by Sebeos, a 7th-century Armenian bishop and historian. In Chapter 31 of his History, he wrote about this dynamic:

Muslims and Christians cooperate in banning Jews

The tsunami wave of Muhammad’s jihadi armies crashed upon the shores of the Land of Israel between 635-640 A.D. The city of Jerusalem (also called Aelia, one of the Roman names of Jerusalem, based on the Latin Aelia Capitolina) was besieged in November 636 A.D. The official general of these mujāhidīn (jihad warriors) was Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, Muhammad’s father-in-law. It is traditionally believed in Islam that he was the author of the Pact of Umar (Arabic, Al-'Uhda Al-'Umariyya), a terms-of-surrender agreement (purportedly written down in 637-638 A.D.) between the Islamic forces and Jerusalem’s Christian leadership. Here is a portion of that document, according to the Muslim historian al-Ṭabarī (circa 900 A.D.)

The Islamic conquerors chose to maintain the Roman and Byzantine status quo, legally preserving Jerusalem as a judenrein (Nazi pejorative term meaning ‘cleansed of Jews’) city.

Modern Islamic apologists defend this policy as “in conformity with the Jews’ position in Jerusalem, which had been decided since the Emperor Hadrian . . . The Muslims did not take Jerusalem away from the Jews . . . The Muslims received it from the Romans.”

According to Islamic law, conquered lands which become ‘Islamic charitable trusts’ (waqf) can never be ceded, sold or mortgaged to non-Muslims. According to Islamic law the Temple Mount is waqf, and thus it is forbidden for it to fall under Jewish control or oversight. Herein lies the intractable heart of present tensions.

According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad bestowed the Holy Land’s first waqf in an endowment involving Hebron, bequeathing it to Tamīm ibn Aws al-Dārī, a former Christian priest who converted to Islam. The Islamic perspective on how this affected the future legal status of the Holy Land is revealed in this Muslim comment: “By making this endowment to him, the Prophet was in fact staking Islam’s claim to legitimate ownership of Palestine.”

Jerusalem, Mecca or a small village in the desert

In modern Sunni Islam, the three holiest mosques, in descending order, are – Mecca (al-Masjid al-Ḥarām), Medina (al-Masjid an-Nabawi) and the Temple Mount prayer hall (Jami' Al-Aqsa). Yet this Islamic tradition runs into problems when confronted and contradicted by Islamic history.

Shi'ite Islam (10-13% of all Muslims) traditionally looks to Najaf, Iraq as its third site –  the Sanctuary of Imām 'Alī  (Ḥaram al-ʾImām ʿAlī) – and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Muhammad originally had his followers face Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in prayer. This prayer focus is known as the qibla in Arabic. Yet this lasted less than 18 months: “Narrated Al-Bara: The Prophet prayed facing Bait-ul Maqdis [i.e. Arabic for ‘The Holy House’ or Jerusalem] for sixteen or seventeen months but he wished that his qibla would be the Ka`ba [at Mecca]” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4486; 2.142-143; Book 65, Hadith 13). Muhammad then changed the direction of prayer to Mecca, which cause no little confusion among his followers. According to the Quran, Allah’s response was to use scorn and ad hominem attacks against any questioners: “The Statement of Allah ‘The fools [pagans, hypocrites and Jews] among the people will say, “What has turned them [Muslims] from their qibla [prayer direction]?”

According to the 8th-century Arab historian al-Waqidi in his Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi (‘Book of History and Campaigns’), Muhammad had a group of supporters in the city of al-Ta’if, a two-day’s walk from Mecca. Muhammad would spend the night in the half-way point – the village of al-Juʽranah. Near the village were two mosques, ‘The Nearby Mosque’ (al-Masjid al-Adna) and the ‘Distant Mosque’ (‘al-Masjid al-Aqsa’). Muhammad would pray in one of them before setting out on his day-long journey. The Qur’an (17:1) tells a story that one night in 630 A.D. a miracle occurred to Muhammad; the Creator took him to the ‘Distant Mosque’ (‘al-Masjid al-Aqsa’) to reveal some miracles. Muhammad’s contemporaries understood the reference in this passage literally. They knew that ‘al-Masjid al-Aqsa’ was near the village of al-Juʽranah, half-way to Ta’if. There were no mosques or Muslims in Jerusalem at that time, and Jerusalem was not at all what al-Juʽranah’s residents would have thought about.

It should be noted that when Muhammad died in the year 632 A.D., he had never visited Jerusalem.

Later internal Islamic politics led to the spreading of false propaganda. Muslim theologians began to ascribe the al-Masjid al-Aqsa as being the same as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. One needs to remember that in Muhammad’s day Arab jihadis had not yet set foot in Israel, nor had they built a mosque there. Such ‘unimportant issues’ were swept under the Middle Eastern carpet as Islamic Replacement Theology christened the Temple Mount with a counterfeit name and destiny.

One historical vignette written down by 9th-century historian al-Tabari describes an event in 637-638 A.D. As Kaʿb al-Aḥbār (a Jewish convert to Islam) approached the Temple Mount with Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the former began to remove his shoes in respect for the holiness of the Temple Mount. The Caliph rebuked him, saying: “By Allah, O Ka‘b, in your heart you are still a Jew, for I have seen how you took off your shoes [before entering the Temple Mount]. But we Muslims were not ordered to sanctify this Rock (al-Saḵrah); we were only ordered to turn [in prayer] towards the Ka‘ba [in Mecca].”

According to early Islamic understanding, the Temple Mount in 637 A.D. was not considered by its Islamic conquerors to be a holy place.

One way and the only way

Islam believes that there is only one way and one Prophet: “Certainly, Allah’s only Way is Islam” (Quran; Surah 3 Ali 'Imran' Ayat 19). Islam believes that it is the only true religion; that Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Yeshua were Muslims; and that Jews (and Christians) falsified the Scriptures. Islam believes that the Jews have lost their claims to their gifts and calling, to the Temple Mount, and to any prophetic or covenantal claims to the Land. Based on this theological foundation, Islam does not see itself as coexisting in peace with other religions, but rather as replacing them. This is why Jihadi Islam deliberately built its mosques on top of synagogues, churches, monasteries and pagan temples. This is why Islam founded a network of laws to denigrate Jews and Christians (the dhimmi status).

Islam’s self-understanding refuses to allow sovereign Jewish existence on any lands once occupied by jihadi forces. This includes all of Israel and especially the Temple Mount. Knesset Member Ben-Gvir’s brief walk around the Temple Mount compound is seen as serious, provocative, illegal, and a violation of the status quo – because that is exactly how jihadi Islam sees the Jewish people’s existence in the Land of Israel, in the city of Jerusalem, and on the Temple Mount.

The Islamic vision for the Jewish people was stated clearly by both Muhammad and Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb:

Marionettes and the restoration of Jerusalem

In Genesis 27:22, Isaac spoke dramatic words: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” Today at the UN the voice (and the vote) of the nations can be seen as ‘the hands of Esau.’ But what is more troubling is the voice coming through loud and clear – a voice which is demonic in nature. That voice opposes YHVH’s restoration of Israel to their land and to their Temple Mount by issuing condemnations against Jacob and against the God who makes promises to Jacob.

The blind repeating of Hadrianic, Byzantine and Islamic falsehoods by the UN, the US, the UAE, France, China, etc., shows that, spiritually speaking, the nations of the world are behaving like marionettes on a string, roaring their anger and rebellion against the One who sits enthroned in the heavens and laughs (see Psalm 2).

The prophetic confession of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah is also our prayer at this time: may YHVH bring to the Jewish people “salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us!” (Luke 1:71).

In the next newsletter, the unique contributions of the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the dynamics in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War will be considered, as well as Israeli Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan’s fateful decisions regarding the Temple Mount, and the connection between today’s ‘status quo’ and the Last Battle.

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Why was Jesus born in a manger?

Growing up in French Canada as a young Jewish boy, I found myself enchanted by nativity scenes. Walking home on snow-covered December evenings, I would gaze at winking blue Christmas lights woven around stately pine trees. I smiled to see green, red and golden wreaths hanging on many doors. And especially, my heart was inexplicably warmed by glowing spotlights shining upon elegant wood carvings of a kneeling couple, a baby in a crèche, three wise men and assorted animals. For me, it seemed the very picture of domestic tranquility. Not Jewish, of course, but very sweet. For me, Christmas was not a Jewish holiday. But I was happy for the Gentiles who could enjoy it.

In order for us all to understand the context of that nativity scene, both Jew and Gentile could benefit by unpacking the historical background of what was going on in Jewish Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Some light will be shed on the Jewish roots of Christmas, as well as illuminate prophetic aspects of a greater fulfilment in days soon to come.

Living in prophetic times - Hanukkah

This current calendar year is one of the rare times when Hanukkah and Christmas coincide – Christmas Eve falls on the seventh candle of the Festival of Lights. In modern Western society Hanukkah emphases dreidls (spinning four-sided tops), latkes (potato pancakes) or sufganiyot (Israeli doughnuts), and nine-branched menorahs (candelabra). But the biblical and historical roots of the Festival of Dedication focus on different things. Here’s an article which goes into greater detail: https://davidstent.org/maccabees-wanna-bes-and-fake-news-the-real-story-of-hanukkah/.

From 721 B.C. and onward the Jewish state would be conquered in succession by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Egypt and Greece. The Greeks conquered Judea in 332 B.C., basing their rule initially in Ptolemaic Egypt, but later out of Seleucid Syria. The Jewish people were living in prophetic times, walking out Hosea’s prophecy in anguish of soul: “For the sons of Israel will live for many days without a king or leader, without sacrifice” (Hosea 3:4).

But eventually stalwart men and women of faith – the Maccabees – rose up in 167 B.C. against the Greek oppressors and defeated them. The Maccabees were descendants of Aaron and not of David: their biblical calling was to catalyze and lead pure worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, and to teach the Jewish people the Scriptures (see Deuteronomy 17:9-13). The Bible declares that David’s dynasty was established by YHVH to be the royal rulers of the sons of Jacob forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Jeremiah 33:22-26). Nevertheless, the Maccabees were men of faith, fighting the wars of the Lord against the pagan Greeks: “The people who know their God will firmly resist” (Daniel 11:32-35).

Yet within 63 years, according to Josephus [Jewish Antiquities, xiii. 301] in 104 B.C. the Maccabean High Priest Judah Aristobulus the First “was the first to put a diadem on his head, four hundred and eighty-one years and three months after the time when the people were released from the Babylonian captivity and returned to their own country.” Aristobulus became the first non-Davidic ruler to claim both kingship and High Priesthood, violating the divine provisions of the Davidic Covenant.

Those Jewish people who were the remnant of Israel (see Romans 11:4-6) were horrified: the Maccabees (formerly defenders of Israel’s God and Temple) were now profaning the promises of YHVH and establishing a Greek-oriented kingship which ran roughshod over God’s word. No wonder that Josephus noted Aristobulus’ nickname in those days – Philhellene, or ‘lover of things Greek’ (Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. 318).

When Edom sat on David’s throne

The Maccabean kings ruled from 104 until 66 B.C.. But within a short time Julius Caesar appointed an Edomite (a descendant of Edom/Esau; see Genesis 36:6-8) named Antipater to be Roman Procurator of Judea (Josephus, Antiquities, 14.8.5). The Edomites are seen in the Bible as arch-enemies of the Jews – past, present and future (see Ezekiel 25:12-14; 35:14-15; 36:4-5). Antipater’s most famous son Herod the Great did not disappoint in this regard: “Antipater married a wife of an eminent family among the Arabians, whose name was Cypros, and had . . . sons born to him by her – Phasaelus, and Herod who was afterwards king” (Josephus, Wars, 1:8:9).

The son of Antipater, Herod the Great, was Edomite on his father’s side (biblical genealogy is always patrilineal) and Nabatean Arab on his mother’s side. When the Roman Senate crowned Herod the Great ‘King of the Jews’ in 40 B.C., this was now the second time since the Maccabees that a non-Davidic ruler was made king over the Jewish people.

Herod’s Edomite identity was a matter of common knowledge. Josephus quotes Herod’s rival Antigonus as countering Herod’s claim to the throne of the Jews, emphasizing that his bloodline was Edomite and not Jewish: “But Antigonus, by way of reply to what Herod had caused to be proclaimed, and this before the Romans . . . said, that ‘They would not do justly if they gave the Kingdom to Herod, who was no more than a private man, and an Idumean” (Josephus, Antiquities iv:15:2).

When Yeshua was born in Bethlehem, also known as ‘David’s City’ (see 1 Samuel 20:6; Luke 2:4, 11), an Edomite usurper was sitting on the throne promised to David and his seed. The irony of this situation was not lost on many Jews living in the land of Judea in that day. Had not Malachi recently declared YHVH’s words: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau and I have made his mountains a desolation” (Malachi 1:2-3; see also Romans 9:10-15). Yet the opposite of what Malachi prophesied seemed to be happening in Yeshua’s day: Esau was prospering, while Jacob was languishing.

The condition of David’s royal dynasty was in ruins, both geographically and genealogically. Amos had prophesied about these ruins, but his focus was on restoration of Davidic government and not on modern Charismatic worship. YHVH would restore a ruined Davidic dynasty on the soil of the Land of Israel, replete with palaces and walls: “On that day I will raise up the fallen shelter of David, and wall up its gaps. I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name, declares YHVH who does this” (Amos 9:11-12).

Today, the majority of those who are known as Palestinians are of Edomite origin. The original jihadis on the mid-600’s A.D. added to the ethnic bouillabaisse the transfer of other Saudi Arabian tribes:

For more information, see chapter 18 of ‘Jews, Arabs and the Middle East – a Messianic perspective.’

Esau I have loved, but Jacob I have hated

Yeshua was born in a manger, a Latin-based word meaning ‘a feeding trough.’ No parents in their right mind would have chosen such a scenario. Yosef and Miriam (better known these days as Joseph and Mary) had arrived in Bethlehem to register in the Roman census (Luke 2:1-6a). They probably stayed in that town for a bit of time, but “while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth” (Luke 2:6b). There was no room for them in Bethlehem’s caravanserai, and so they had to make do with a local stable which had a stone feeding trough or manger. It was primitive, unsanitary and humble, and not quite up to the level of the apartments in Buckingham Palace. An Edomite sits on David’s throne, while David’s Greater Son (see Matthew 22:42-45) is laid in a rough stone feeding trough.

Today the majority of the world’s nations vote continually against Israel at the United Nations, casting their ballots in favor of establishing an Edomite state alongside of (or in place of) a Jewish state. On November 30, 2022, ninety nations cast a ‘yea’ vote in favor of holding a commemorative event in honor of the 75th Nakba, the PLO-chosen commemorative name for the fact of Israel’s establishment. Nakba is the Arabic word for ‘catastrophe.’ The nations are once again on record as seeing the restoration of Israel as a catastrophe. “Esau I have loved, but Jacob I have hated” – this spiritual dynamic has captured the hearts and minds of the nations of the world. It surely is time to pray for international repentance and God’s decisive justice.

Once upon a time, the Persians nearly carried out a complete genocide of the Jewish people under Haman. The Greeks made the following of the Jewish covenants a crime punishable by death. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple. forbade circumcision and exiled most remaining Jews to the far corners of the empire. Today the nations of the world refuse to recognize YHVH’s restoration of the Jewish people to their country and their Holy City.  Hatred remains, certainly – but YHVH has the last word.

A Jewish Messiahmas

A handful of months before Yeshua was born, a Jewish woman named Miriam spoke out an astounding prophecy: YHVH will fulfill every good promise spoken over the sons and daughters of Jacob, and will bring down to the ground all nations and superpowers who raise their hand (or their vote) against Israel:

He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed.

He has given help to His servant Israel in remembrance of His covenant faithfulness –

Just as He spoke to our fathers – to Abraham and his descendants forever” (Luke 1:51-55)

On the eighth day after birth, when John the Immerser was to be circumcised, his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about how YHVH’s salvation would include the crushing of Israel’s enemies and the rescue of the Jewish people:

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,

and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David –

just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times –

salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;

to show covenant faithfulness to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,

the oath which He swore to our father Abraham,

to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,

would serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days” (Luke 1:67-75)

These emphases are highlighted and underscored by Yeshua’s parents and relatives. May they also be part of the Good News we proclaim at this season!

Let’s remember the prophetic prayer of an elderly Jewish man – one that he proclaimed in the Temple courtyard, for it still echoes down through the ages:

“Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples – a light for revelation for the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32)

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

What’s new? Our latest creative developments

What’s new? Our latest creative developments

Happy Hanukkah!  We've created some encouraging things in 2022:

Here are the up-to-date details:

Israel the Key to World Revival – Polish edition

 
Avner's book Israel the Key to World Revival is now available as a downloadable e-book in Polish. Our prayer is that this will help equip Polish-speaking believers in understanding, revelation and pro-activity in praying for and sharing with the Jewish people. Here is the link to order this new translation: https://davidstent.org/product/israel-the-key-to-world-revival/ 

And also – Israel the Key to World Revival – Spanish edition

 
Avner's book Israel the Key to World Revival is also available as a downloadable e-book in Spanish.  Pray with us that this e-book will be a blessing to many in the Spanish-speaking world, and contribute to helping to spread the biblical perspective on the calling and gifts of Israel! Here is the link to order this new translation: https://davidstent.org/product/israel-the-key-to-world-revival/

Shtetl Dreams – our new recording

 This beautiful new recording is a treasure of light born in a dark time. ‘Shtetl Dreams’ reflects dreams rising out of Jewish villages in the Exile, dreams born out of the historical Scattering of the Hebrew nation. These dreams looked forward to a better time and place – the Promised Land, where promises are fulfilled and dreams come true – both physically and spiritually.  This recording (in Yiddish, Hebrew, English and Russian) is soothing and reflective, taking the listener to another world, to history past and history to come.  You can order it at: https://davidstent.org/product/shtetl-dreams/ 

The Ezekiel 37 Institute – the filming of our prophetic training school in English

 
Over the past five years we have developed the E37 Institute courses in Hebrew – a training for Israeli believers based on the prophetic vision in Ezekiel 37:1-14. We have taught this course in Hebrew three times (Jerusalem twice and once in Beersheva).  Now we are filming it in English. This project will take approximately six months to complete and to come on-line.

There are still financial needs in order to complete the project – camera and lighting equipment, as well as film editing and graphics/production costs. If you have a desire to help see this project to completion, consider contributing at: https://davidstent.org/give/

We encourage you to pray about these projects and to ask the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob what role and part you can play in helping us equip and reach the House of Israel, as well as reaching all those who desire to stand with the Jewish people as the shadows grow longer and the Day grows nearer.

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Hanukkah – spiritual darkness on earth and in the heavenlies

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:12-13).

The Feast of Hanukkah – also known as the Festival of Lights or Dedication – is close at hand (December 18 eve through December 26 twilight). Some see this holiday as a Jewish parallel to Christmas, with glowing menorahs being a Jewish equivalent to Christmas trees, and traditional Yuletide gifts vying with eight days of Hanukkah presents.  But the Festival of Lights shines lessons of faith upon mankind, bringing strength as we struggle for truth in these days of darkness.

Daniel. Michael and the prince of Greece

“And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they did not prevail, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).

Spiritual warfare and physical battle are often connected. This is revealed in the scriptural description of the Archangel Michael, who holds the divine portfolio for the Jewish people (Daniel 10:21 “Michael your prince” and Daniel 12:1 12 “Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people”). In the above-quoted future scenario Michael is surrounded by his angelic warriors, locked in hand-to-hand combat with Satan and his fallen angels.

The Book of Daniel reveals a hierarchy among the powers of spiritual wickedness, with lesser devils commanded by higher demonic principalities. The Persian Empire and the Greek Empire were overseen by demonic principalities called ‘the princes of Persia and Greece’ (see Daniel 10:13, 20).   The demonic principality of Persia opposed God’s purposes in freeing the Jewish people and returning them to the land of Israel. That demon tried to use Haman to commit genocide against the entire Jewish nation, as revealed in the Book of Esther. God’s reinforcements (called in and directed by Michael) won the day and preserved Israel.

Daniel the prophet was informed that the angel would soon need to leave and rejoin the battle against Persia. But after the Persian demonic overlord would be defeated, another demonic prince – the prince of Greece – would then arise. Daniel 11:21-35 prophesies that Greek forces in the days of Antiochus IV Epiphanes would attempt to destroy the Jewish people. That is the background to the Feast of Hanukkah.

The defenders of the faith

The Maccabees have been described as Jewish defenders of the faith. In the historical book 2 Maccabees 8:34-36, the Greek-Syrian General Nicanor “proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender” in Judah the Maccabee. Both in the Book of Daniel and in the Letter to the Hebrews, the same testimony rings out about these commandos of God:

Is YHVH a pacifist?

Some Christians and Jews do not know what to make of Moses’ bold declaration that “YHVH is a warrior! YHVH is His name!” (Exodus 15:3). Their pietistic and pacifist upbringing has made them skittish of military issues in general and of warriors in particular. But King David did not hesitate to proclaim: “Blessed be YHVH my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle!” (Psalm 144:1). David’s reputation in Israel was described in rather non-pacifistic terms: “Then one of the young men responded and said, ‘Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a valiant mighty man, a warrior, skillful in speech, and a handsome man; and YHVH is with him’” (1 Samuel 16:18).

David’s top Special Operations Forces soldiers are heartily described in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 – men who won battles when the odds were 800 to one, or 300 to one; men who jumped into snow-filled pits to wrestle lions, etc.  And let’s not forget the last of the Judges and the first of the Prophets – Samuel – who “cut Agag to pieces before YHVH at Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:33).

In the same way as young men look up to Navy Seals Team VI or to Delta Force warriors, in the same was as Israeli youth admire Sayeret Matkal or Shayetet 13, so the Bible speaks highly of warriors who defend the Jewish people and defeat Israel’s enemies. Zechariah prophecies about the Last Days Jewish army who will do exploits in the Battle of Jerusalem:

The Maccabean warriors are a prophetic foreshadowing of Ezekiel 37:9-10:

The Hebrew Scriptures certainly prophesy about hard times coming to the whole world, to the Middle East and to the Jewish people. But they also speak of Jewish warriors who will stop the enemy dead in his tracks. Both sides of this prophetic message are biblical, and both sides should be part of our Last Days vision and message.

Dragons in Bethlehem

A well-loved Christmas carol proclaims that Bethlehem’s silent night is filled with calm and heavenly peace. Yet the Gospels add context that reveal satanic origins behind Herod’s murderous attempt to slay the infant Messiah (see Matthew 2:1-20):

Spiritual warfare targets the Jewish people, using world empires (like Persian and Greece) and world rulers (like Herod, Hitler and Haman) in a concerted attempt to destroy the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Sleeping dragons in Manhattan

Quite recently, in World War II, Satan used the Nazi empire in similar ways. He also used powerful industrialists and bankers in the USA and across Europe in his genocidal plans.  Here are three books which expose these demonically energized schemes:

There was deep involvement by the cream of American, British and German industries, companies and banks in supporting and enabling the Nazi death machine. These sobering facts are mostly unknown to the majority of citizens in the West. The leaders in question and their followers have not yet repented for being accessories to murder and enablers of genocidal against the Jewish people.

As we consider how the God of Israel has responded throughout Scripture to those who threaten and harm Israel the apple of His eye (see Zechariah 2:8), we are challenged to press in through prayer regarding current international and Islamist efforts to weaken and crush the regathered Jewish people and their state.  

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Strong horses and lion cubs

The world’s largest sports event – FIFA World Cup 2022 (also known as ‘the Mondial’) – is taking place this month in Doha, Qatar. It is the first World Cup to be held in the Arab/Muslim world, with 32 soccer/football teams participating. Over the past 12 years an estimated $220 billion dollars has been invested by Qatar in preparation for these games, fifteen times more than Moscow laid out for its 2018 World Cup.

Only five years previously, on June 5, 2017 Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, banning Qatar-registered planes and ships from utilizing their airspace and sea routes and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, blocking Qatar’s only land crossing. This was officially due to Qatar’s open support for jihadi terror groups (including hosting the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, funding and arming Hamas, and violating Gulf consensus regarding ties with the Shi’ite revolutionary dictatorship, the Islamic Republic of Iran).

Investigative reporters have uncovered the facts that over 6,500 migrant workers are said to have died building the Olympic facilities in Qatar, subject to cruel and deadly working conditions. To add to this potent mix, strong evidence of corruption and bribery have been published regarding Qatar’s successful bid to host FIFA 2022. Yet just in time, the diplomatic tide turned. Qatar was able to pour oil on troubled waters, making Middle Eastern peace with its four opponents (who also have supported terrorism throughout the years). And the Mondial is now being successfully hosted in Doha.

Mohammad al-Emadi (Qatari envoy to Gaza) flew to the Gaza Strip at the beginning of the Mondial. His job? To convey the message to the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that they needed to chill any rocket attacks on Israel during the World Cup (that is, until after December 18). Such activities would embarrass Qatar in world media and would certainly spoil the party.

In other news, Israelis attending the Qatari World Cup have been running into hostility and hatred from Islamic and Arab football fans. Some Israelis have been thrown out of restaurants when their national identity became known. Israel (a member in good standing of FIFA) has been removed from the FIFA site travel links, and visitors are directed instead to a site entitled ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories.’ Israelis who had thought that a new era of friendship and brotherhood was opening between the Arab world and the Jewish people (with direct Tel Aviv-Doha flights for the duration of the World Cup) are seeing their hopes dashed by anti-Semitic pails of cold water thrown at them in Doha.

A historic step between Jews and Arabs – or treason?

Right in the middle of the Mondial, on Sunday December 4, Israeli President Isaac Herzog flew to Manama, Bahrain with a message that his trip was “another historic step in the relationship between Israel and Arab states that signed the Abraham Accords, with the hope that more and more countries will be able to join the circle of peace with the State of Israel.”

But a few days before, on Friday December 2, demonstrators in Bahrain chanted “death to Israel” at rallies, gathering in several areas of the tiny country to denounce Herzog’s upcoming Sunday arrival – the first Israeli head of state to ever visit Bahrain. Signs at the demonstrations featured Herzog’s photo with the word ‘criminal’ and ‘you are not welcome in Bahrain.’ Demonstrators burned an Israeli flag and squared off with riot police. One activist Bahraini post stated, “All normalization is an act of treason. Do not come.”

Is peace breaking out in the Middle East? Or are the various Oslo and Abraham Accords bumps in the road on the way to regional war?

The Abrahamic Accords bump up against Arab realities

In a recent Jerusalem Post analysis titled ‘Qatar shows that Abraham Accords did not change Arab-Israeli relations’, Lahav Harkov points out a sobering fact: average people in the Arab world do not view the Abraham Accords positively.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy published a July 2022 poll which revealed by national percentages that the majority of the Arab world’s public does not have a positive view about the Abraham Accords. Positive views of the Abraham Accords were listed as follows:

United Arab Emirates – 25%

Bahrain – 20%

Saudi Arabia – 19%

Kuwait – 14%

Egypt – 13%

Jordan – 12%

Surprisingly, Palestinians lined up as follows:

Palestinian Authority – 25%

Gaza – 34%

East Jerusalem – 48%

Approximately half of Persian Gulf Arabs oppose having any business and sports dealings with Israelis. The populations of the two countries which already have peace treaties with Israel are overwhelmingly opposed to business and sports relations with Israelis – Egypt (85%) and Jordan (87%). Another poll (The Arab Barometer) conducted in 2021-2022 and released in September 2022, found that the only countries with more than 20% in favor of normalization between Israel and Arab states are Sudan (39%) and Morocco (31%). Positive attitudes in Jordan and Egypt hover at around 6% each. 

The Oslo Accords were signed between Israel (PM Yitzhak Rabin) and the PLO (Chairman Yasser Arafat) between 1993 and 1995, but by 1996 a bloody wave of Palestinian terrorism swept across Israel.  Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir wryly declared at the time that “the sea is the same sea and the Arabs are the same Arabs.’ Shamir was implying that, in spite of the Oslo Accords, Arab leaders had changed neither their animosity toward Israel nor their desire to throw the Jews of Israel into the Mediterranean.  Recent opinion polls show that Shamir’s concerns are still anchored in reality, as far as the bulk of the Arab world is concerned.

The longing in the Jewish soul for peace

One of the Songs of Ascent, sung in ancient days as Jewish pilgrims made their way uphill to the House of YHVH in Jerusalem, spoke of the Jewish desire for peace while surrounded by Arab nations seeking our physical destruction: “Rescue my soul, YHVH, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue . . . Woe to me, for I reside in Meshech – for I have settled among the tents of Kedar [Arabian desert areas]! Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war” (Psalm 120).

Living with existential tension is not easy. The leaders of the Jewish people continuously face the temptation to offer their electorate tantalizing promises of rapidly approaching peace, even if cold realities are quite different. Over 2.600 years ago the prophet Ezekiel spoke of YHVH’s wrath against “the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and who see a vision of peace for her when there is no peace” (Ezekiel 13:16). The God of Jacob soberly warned those leaders: “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash. So tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall”  (Ezekiel 13:10-11).

Just before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple at the hands of Babylon, Jeremiah repeated the same prophetic warning with tears: “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ But there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).

In these days some believe that peace to be breaking out across the Middle East. Some speak hopefully of a new dynamic supposedly now at play between the Arab world and Israel – an incremental progression toward greater acceptance, and greater military, intelligence and political cooperation between Islamic states and the Jewish state. But such ethereal dynamics have not persuaded the Middle East’s Arab majority. Unfortunately, these pipe-dreams have influenced many in Israel.

The ‘konseptzia’ syndrome

The stunning and earth-shattering victory of the June 1967 Six Day War made many Israelis giddy. The Israel Defense Forces had fought off a concerted invasion by five hostile Arab nation (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia) as well as two minor supporting nations (Lebanon and Kuwait), capturing territories promised in prophecy to the Jewish people from Abraham to Amos. The words of the Psalmist seemed to come alive once again:  “When YHVH restored the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, ‘YHVH has done great things for them.’ YHVH has done great things for us. We are full of joy!” (Psalm 126).

Yet in a short while giddiness morphed into hubris (chutzpa in Hebrew). Significant amounts of Israelis began to boast of ‘our achievements’ and began to assume that the Jewish state would always emerge triumphant from any battle. The humble prayer of the psalmist was not the focus: “Not to us, YHVH, not to us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your covenant faithfulness, because of Your truth!” (Psalm 115:1).

Six years later, in 1973 the Yom Kippur War (also known in the Arab world as the Ramadan or October War) surprised an unprepared Israel. Eleven hostile Arab invaders (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Kuwait, Sudan) and Cuba, as well as five supporting nations (Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, Pakistan and Lebanon) broke through into Sinai and the Golan Heights. Though AMAN (Israeli military intelligence) and the MOSSAD had received the entire Arab order of battle as well as many concrete warnings, the military, intelligence and political shomrei hasaf (Hebrew, watchmen) had let their guard down. The prevailing perspective (konseptzia in Hebrew) was that the Arab world would never dare to attack Israel and if they did, they would be quickly and soundly broken on the battlefield. But in the meantime, Soviet military and intelligence forces analyzed Israeli weaknesses and came up with their own battlefield strategies. These included new battlefield weapons like the anti-tank AT-3 Sagger, the latest SAM 6 anti-aircraft missiles, jamming equipment, etc., as well as strategic military disinformation. Israel’s false assumptions and lack of preparedness cost us dearly in military casualties.

Present military threats against Israel and the new ‘konseptzia’

Existential threats against the Jewish state have incrementally increased over the past 17 years. At this point we are faced with mortal enemies on at least five fronts: Iran; Lebanon (Hezbollah); Syria; Iraqi Shi’ite forces which are Iranian proxies; Houthi Yemenite Shi’ite forces in cooperation with Iran; ISIS/ISIL forces in both Syria and Egyptian Sinai. There are also fungible and internal fronts: Hamas Muslim Brotherhood forces in Gaza/the West Bank/Israel; Palestinian Islamic Jihad forces in Gaza/the West Bank/Israel; PLO/Palestinian Authority terror gangs in the West Bank and Israel; Arab and Bedouin Israeli civilians involved in terror, rioting and civil unrest. A brief description of the nature of some of these threats follows:

Iran – The Islamic Republic of Iran is a Shi’ite Islamic revolutionary movement actively spreading terrorism throughout the world in general and the Middle East in particular. Its strategic goals include the nuclear destruction of Israel, the crushing of Sunni Islam (85-87% of all Muslims) and the establishment of a Shi’ite caliphate over the entire planet, centered in the Middle East (the Shi’ite Crescent).  A recent article in Beirut-based Al Mayadeen (a pan-Arabist satellite news channel) reported that media outlets close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have published a list of sensitive sites that Iran would target by missile in a future war: the Knesset; the Prime Minister’s Office; the Defense Ministry; nuclear sites and facilities; Rafael Advanced Defense Systems site in Haifa; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa; military and intelligence bases; civilian airports (such as Ben-Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport near Eilat); military airports and bases.

Lebanon (Hezbollah) – Col. Yechiel Kuperstein, head of the IDF’s Physical Protection Department, noted that during the 34-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah (July 12 to August 14, 2006), 3,917 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel, 23% of which fell in built-up (civilian) areas. A total of 43 Israeli civilians and 121 IDF soldiers were killed. Thirty-three civilians suffered serious physical injuries, 68 suffered moderate physical injuries, and 1,388 civilians suffered light physical injuries. Hospitals treated 2,773 civilians for shock and anxiety. Rockets struck homes, damaging over 9,000 and totally destroying 2,000.  Hospitals in Nahariya, Safed, and Mazra were hit, as was an elementary school in Kiryat Yam, a post office in Haifa, etc.

Throughout the 2006 war, an average of 116 rockets per day were fired by Hezbollah. This effectively paralyzed large areas of northern Israel and 650,000 residents fled south for safety. In 2006 Hezbollah’s arsenal was predominantly composed of short-range Katyushas.  IDF Major-General Noam Tibon comments about that conflict: “A key lesson from the conflict is that when flooded with enemy rockets, the ability of Israel's home front to continue to function is extremely finite.”

Shi’ite Iran has been helping the Shi’ite terror group Hezbollah (Arabic, the party of Allah) develop and improve the accuracy of its current stockpile of more than 150,000 rockets, missiles and mortars – all of which can hit civilian and military targets in Israel. The development of precision-guided rockets has been an ardent Hezbollah goal for many years.

On November 20, 2022, Al-Hadath (a Saudi Arabian media outlet) reported current Hezbollah intentions to transfer chemical warhead-armed rockets (chlorine or possibly sarin nerve gas) from Syria into Lebanon.

In a future war, Hezbollah’s main effort will be to fire massive barrages of rockets and missiles into Israel. The majority will be of high statistical accuracy, with long-range systems such as Syrian M-600s, Iranian Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles, Shahab-1 and Shahab-2s (Iran-made Scuds) that can cover most of the Israeli heartland and accurately strike key IDF infrastructure. A recent IDF Home Front Command report forecasts that up to 1,500 rockets and missiles will be launched daily into Israel. Major General Uri Gordin, recent head of the Home Front Command, foresees up to 2,500 Hezbollah rockets per day. The IDF assumes that thousands of homes will be hit, hundreds of Israeli civilians will be injured or killed, and hundreds of thousands will be evacuated from their homes. Herein lies the magnitude of the coming threat.

During a recent military drill, Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi briefed IDF commanders, and some of his words were leaked to the media: “Israel could suffer 300 civilian and military deaths after nine days, and the destruction of 80 sites around the country, including apartment buildings that may take direct fire and collapse . . . But military leaders are uncertain as to how the impact of such a war on the home front, as it emerged from the drill, should be presented to the Israeli civilians. The IDF understands Israelis may suffer under rockets and missiles fire in an intensity never before seen in Israel – but wish to avoid unnecessary panic.”

Dr. Uzi Rubin, 81, the father of Israeli missile defense and the Arrow missile system, was the founder and first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization in the Defense Ministry. His perspective is helpful regarding IDF predictions that Hezbollah rocket fire could lead to as many as 1,000 dead Israeli civilians. Rubin pointed out “that the total volume – whether it was 100,000, 150,000 or whether it someday reached 200,000 rockets – [is] not the pivotal point. Rather, the two critical points [are] ‘the rate and the precision of the rockets’ . . . Hezbollah [doesn’t have] the ability to unleash its full arsenal at once . . . In that light, the question becomes how many rockets per day an adversary like Hezbollah is capable of actually launching against Israel as compared to how many rockets Israel can shoot down when under attack by a simultaneous hail of rockets.”

Major-General (reserves) Yitzhak Gershon, former IDF Home Front chief in 2006, spoke of the coming war between Israel and Hezbollah in a 2016 Army Radio interview: “It will be a completely different scenario from anything we’ve known . . . We will need mental fortitude more than physical protection.” According to current IDF estimates, Hezbollah today is six times more powerful than it was in 2006.

Syria – The Syrian Arab Army was one of the main threats to Israel in times past. In 1967 and 1973 some of the fiercest battles were fought on the Golan Heights between Syrian and Israeli forces. The rise of ISIS/ISIL, the irredentist goals of Turkey, the military strategies of Iran, the goals of the scattered Kurdish nation, and Russian and American geostrategic moves have certainly weakened the cruel Syrian regime.

Iran’s efforts in Syria involve the establishment of its Shi’ite Crescent; military bases which serve as a bridge of control between Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Hezbollah and its own Revolutionary Guards; the import and smuggling of precision-guided weapon systems, munitions (regular and chemical), and military/terror trainers into both Syria and Lebanon; missile and drone bases targeting Israel; etc.

Russia’s goals of seeking warm water ports and controlling Middle East geopolitics have come together significantly in our day. Its construction of naval and submarines facilities in Tartus, and fighter aircraft bases in Khmeimim, attenuate the strategic importance and difficulties for Israel in preserving operational freedom of action against Iranian weapons shipments (which shipments have the potential of drastically shifting the military balance in a future war).

Syria’s documented repeated use of chemical weapons against civilians (with Russian oversight) establishes a worrying precedent for Israel in any future conflict. With an eye to the future, the involvement of Syria in coming attacks on Israel cannot be ruled out. Consider the possibility that Egypt and Jordan will turn on Israel as well – think of Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi who temporarily upended Cairo’s apple cart.

Yemenite Houthis – Iran has recently been helping Houthi jihadis in Yemen to develop UAVs (unmanned air vehicles) and military drones which have the ability to hit and destroy both Saudi oil refineries and Israeli airfields and civilian installations. Dr. Uzi Rubin notes that the “growing capabilities and the impressive skill of their operators elevate the threat from Iran’s unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) from a nuisance to a strategic level on par with Iran’s missiles and rockets threat on Israel.” Israel has shot down Iranian UAVs recently which had been launched both from Syria and Iran. The likelihood of Houthi swarming attacks of drones and UAVs must be considered by those watching over Israel’s national security.

An Arab Israeli ‘fifth column’ – In April and May 2021 tensions broke out at symbolic Jerusalem flashpoints (Sheikh Jarrah, Damascus Gate Plaza, Silwan, etc.) between East Jerusalem Arab demonstrators and Israeli security forces. Within a few days a significant minority of Israeli Arabs and Bedouin engaged in violent rioting against Jewish neighbors and Israeli infrastructure (highways, stores, homes, police, etc.). The potentially explosive Ramadan season was a factor, irritated by the Jewish celebration of Jerusalem Day. The catalytic behavior of some extreme right-wing Jewish groups was also a factor. Arabs assaulted Jews travelling on Jerusalem’s light rail network or on streets close to Arab areas. Arab-Israeli riots spread to mixed cities, with life-threatening attacks carried out on Jews in Jaffa, Lod, Akko, Ramle, Haifa, and at major intersections in the north and south of the country. Main highways in our area were shut down as local Bedouin toppled kilometers of electrical poles and towers, even shooting into the back entrance of our home town.

Jewish residents’ sense of security was shaken, and this caused serious damage to the fabric of common life. Police response to the riots was slow. Violent retaliatory Jewish riots then erupted in various hotspots – Arabs were attacked, some of them innocent bystanders.

On May 10, 2021 the jihadi terror group Hamas launched a surprise rocket attack during the Israeli Jerusalem Day Flag March, firing a barrage of rockets into Israel and even at Jerusalem. The IDF responded with the 11-day military Operation Guardians of the Walls, during which time even more violent riots erupted in various parts of the country. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired a total of 4,360 rockets and mortars against Israeli civilians (400 a day, on the average). Of these, approximately 3,600 crossed the border from Gaza into Israel. Around 1,700 were intercepted, and close to 180 fell in populated areas, causing casualties and substantial damage at dozens of sites while disrupting daily life.

The intensity and strength of these Arab-Israeli riots caused many Jewish Israelis to think hard. At this point, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank shelters over 20,000 trained and equipped terrorists armed with sub-machine guns. Were these to rise up in coordination with Hamas, Hezbollah and local Israeli Arabs/Bedouin, they would be able to quickly massacre and destroy a significant amount of Jewish towns and settlements located within the biblical borders of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) – think 1948. IDF forces would be rushed to reinforce Jewish residents of those areas. But if tens of thousands of Arab Israelis were to block the free movement of those Israeli troops, or if thousands of Arab mechanics and Bedouin tank-transporter drivers who do contract work for the IDF refused to show up to move armor into place, Israel would be facing a clear and present danger. Severe measures would need to be taken to keep roads and supply lines open. Herein lies the magnitude of the local and internal threat.

Dr. Eado Hecht, researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is a defense analyst specializing in military theory and history. He lectures at Bar-Ilan University and at the IDF Command and General Staff College. He challenges his readers to think strategically about possible future scenarios: “What will happen if the IDF needs to fight against more than only Hezbollah? If, for example, a rebuilt Syrian military faces it in the Golan Heights, backed up by Shiite forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran? And at the same time, Hamas begins bombarding our home front from the south? Does the IDF have a sufficiently large order of battle to deal with all of these enemies at the same time? We would have to call up reserves against Hamas on its own. Against a smaller Hezbollah in 2006, we had to call up reserves. Since then, we have cut reserves very sharply – entire divisions and brigades have been canceled.”

Strong horses and lion cubs

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence specializing in Syria, Arab political discourse and mass media, Islamic groups and Israeli Arabs. An expert on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, his take on these developments is worth reading: “Given Islam’s pervasive entrenchment in Palestinian society (and for that matter in all Middle Eastern societies) – even Yasser Arafat and most of the PLO’s founding generation were Muslim Brotherhood members in their young age – the acceptance of Israel’s existence by Muslims communities, both within Israel and abroad, will only be feasible upon their realization of the Jewish state’s overwhelming strength and invincibility. Only a powerful, well organized, highly determined and militarily invincible Israel can stand a chance of surviving in its violent and merciless neighborhood.”

This can be described as ‘the strong horse’ principle. In mid-November 2001, Osama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, discussing the September 11th terrorist attacks: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is [the] only goal . . . following the doctrine of Muhammad.” Bin Laden saw Islam as the strong horse, and Christian America as the weak one.

Journalist Lee Smith based the name of his book The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations on Osama bin Laden’s above-mentioned quote. In this work, Smith states that strength or “violence is central to the politics, society, and culture of the Arabic-speaking Middle East, and that Arab politics is driven by the ‘strong horse’ principle.” “Bin Ladenism is not drawn from the extremist fringe but represents the political and social norm [of the Arabic-speaking Middle East].”  According to T. Edward Donselm (writing in the Arab Studies Quarterly), Smith sees a revived modern Islamism as an effort to employ the fourteen-hundred-year old political institution of jihad as a tool to restore Sunni Islam to the supremacism it enjoyed in Islam's first century.

Agreeing with Dr. Kedar’s appraisal, Daniel Pipes (director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University) applies Bin Laden’s ‘strong horse’ principle to Israel’s role in the Middle East. Israel serves as “a proxy strong horse” for both the United States and the Saudi-Egyptian bloc in the latter’s Cold War rivalry with Iran’s bloc. Pipes outlines the policies of non-Arab actors in the Arab world: unless they are forceful and show true staying power, they lose. “Being nice – say, withdrawing unilaterally from southern Lebanon and Gaza – leads to inevitable failure.  More broadly, when the U.S. government flinches, others (e.g., the Iranian leadership) have an opportunity to ‘force their own order on the region.’ Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader, has half-seriously suggested that Washington [should] ‘send car bombs to Damascus’ to get its message across and signal its understanding of Arab ways.”

Pipes concludes that Lee Smith’s ‘strong horse’ paradigm helps us to comprehend the Arabs’ cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism and warfare. Pipes acknowledges that the strong-horse principle may strike Westerners as ineffably crude, but he correctly insists on its being a cold reality that outsiders must recognize, take into account, and respond to.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the God of Jacob uses the poetic figure of a strong war horse to describe His gifts and calling on the Jewish nation: “For YHVH of armies has visited His flock, the House of Judah, and will make them like His majestic horse in battle” (Zechariah 10:3).

But the Jewish people are not only YHVH’s strong horse; they are also His lion cub (Genesis 49:8-9): “As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares to stir him up?”

For the present time, the best and most realistic posture for the Jewish people to take in the Middle East is to be both the strong horse and the roaring lion – until the time when the Arab world bows the knee before the God of the armies of Israel.

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

The Israeli elections – casting lots and ballots

King Solomon said it first: “The cast lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between the mighty ones” (Proverbs 18:18). Yet modern political developments indicate that elections don’t always put an end to quarrels. Another Solomonic gem wryly notes that “the first to plead his case seems right until another comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17). Both the USA and Brazil have recently been walking through difficult days regarding election-related matters.

Israel, the Jewish state, has just completed its fifth quarrelsome round of elections in three and a half years.  The clash of the two electoral titans (leftists/centrists vs. rightists/religious) has just ended. A third proverb from Solomon remains, but not everyone would want to agree with its message:  “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from YHVH” (Proverbs 16:33).

Some of our friends are overjoyed at the incoming election results from Israel, while others are very concerned. How can we achieve clear focus, accurate appraisal and biblical balance? This newsletter is an attempt to shed more light than heat on the present political predicament in Zion.  

Roots and shoots

In 1920 during the times of the British Mandate, the Jewish community (or Yishuv) established the Assembly of Representatives. After May 1948 when Israel became a modern state, the first Knesset was elected in January 1949 and sworn in on February 1949, with a total of 21 parties vying for seats in the April elections. The founding fathers of the Jewish state tended to be socialist and secularist, so it was no surprise that the leftist Labor party led by David Ben-Gurion held the reins of Israeli political influence and development for nearly 30 years, from 1948 until 1977. The Jewish leaders of the state came from European (Ashkenazi) background. Jewish newcomers from North African (Sephardic) and Middle Eastern (Mizrahi) countries found themselves lower down on the food chain in the new Jewish state.

From the beginning in 1948, religious parties (mostly Ashkenazi-led) played a significant role in influencing coalition politics, far beyond their actual numbers. Their goals were to incrementally enshrine rabbinic laws (halacha) within the secular corpus of Israeli law – which meant increased coercion regarding Sabbath observance in the areas of government, army and public transport; withholding permits to non-kosher restaurants and hotels; draft exemptions for yeshiva students – all these were areas of theopolitical activism. Whereas the original socialist leaders of Israel tolerated these fledgling Orthodox attempts to carve out their own ‘territory,’ they never imagined that rabbinic influence would increase to today’s present proportions.

In another area, over a thirty year period political corruption grew by leaps and bounds among the socialist Ashkenazi nomenklatura, while European Jewish prejudice against Jews from Arab countries fed into a smoldering time-bomb of burning resentment. This finally exploded in the ‘mahapach’ of 1977 – the astounding ‘overthrow’ of socialist-Ashkenazi Labor party (led by Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzchak Rabin, Ehud Barak, etc.) by the more right-wing Likud/Middle-Eastern Jewish coalition led by Menachem Begin, Yitzchak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. The religious parties (who had been long-time allies of the leftist Labor party, the only game in town) crossed the aisle to join the right-wingers in a marriage (if not made in heaven) at least consummated on earth.

The Israeli political see-saw

From its very beginning, the Knesset was the embodiment of the famous Yiddish saying, “Two Jews; three opinions.” With 120 potential Knesset seats up for grabs, and the two major parties unable to wield decisive majorities, the strategic role and influence of the smaller blocs in cobbling together successful coalition compromises became a source of weakness and instability in parliament. A measure of corruption and blackmail became de rigeur, and backroom deals which adulterated accepted democratic civil liberties were now considered the price for keeping political machines running smoothly – on both sides of the aisle. These factors led to an increasing malaise in Israel’s body politic, with top leaders changing their spots and even starting new political parties when outvoted by their constituencies.

These dynamics have eaten away the public’s trust in what have been the pillars of society. The latest 2021 survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) reveals how much public trust has dropped in governmental institutions over the past few years:

Israel Defense Forces                              90% in 2019 to 78%    in 2021

Supreme Court                                           42% in 2020 to 41%    in 2021

Israel Police                                                 41% in 2020 to 33.5% in 2021

The media                                                     32% in 2020 to 25%    in 2021

Knesset                                                          32% in 2020 to 21%    in 2021

Political parties                                           17% in 2020 to 10%    in 2021

The nature of Israeli discourse is intense, and the ‘two Jews, three opinions’ dynamic makes for lively and heated discussion among Israelis on a daily basis. The debate among Jews here involves deep polarization: many consider their political rivals to definitely be enemies, and most probably evil personified. A specifically Yiddish turn of phrase is used to describe this dynamic – ‘the gevalt campaign’ (from the Yiddish word for ‘a cry of impending doom’). Even Israeli Arab parties today use similar tactics, shouting out with alarm when political opponents seem to be gaining on them. This worldview is very Middle Eastern, and these strident tones play out well in the news media, where lurid colors predominate.

‘Whose blood is redder’?

This above-asked rabbinic saying raises a question about moral equivalencies. For example: should one attempt to free a captive in your immediate family from murderous kidnappers, knowing all the time that his release will lead to the death of another captive, from someone else’s family? Such a zero-sum game seems to be all too common in Israel’s present political scenario.

Here are some examples of this zero-sum game choice: One political party is known for its strong posture of military deterrence and daring intelligence operations, yet it is linked by coalition politics to ultra-Orthodox and strongly-anti-Messianic Jewish parties. A second party advocates helping tens of thousands of Israelis living below the poverty line, yet simultaneously actively attacks Conservative, Reform and Messianic Jews. Only two Israeli political parties are pro-life – one is ultra-Orthodox and strongly anti-Messianic Jewish; the other most closely reflects Messianic Jewish values in some areas. This last party garnered less than 500 votes in the present elections. Some parties are rabidly against Orthodox Judaism while being stridently pro-secular. Other parties are zealously pro-rabbinic Judaism while simultaneously anti-Conservative, anti-Reform and anti-Messianic Jews. Some parties home in on special interests, appealing to new Russian-speaking immigrants, or to Ethiopian and Yemenite communities. And again, other parties are strongly pro-abortion and feminist. The stunning array of choices here insures that inherent fault-lines in the Israeli body politic will continue for some time yet.

The most recent roller-coaster ride in Israeli politics began in June 2021, when coalition horse-trading led to the party with the most votes (Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud) failing to cement a stable coalition. This led to Naftali Bennett’s small party of 6-7 members being propped up as the Prime Ministerial front-man for a consortium of centrist, leftist and anti-Zionist Arab parties. For the first time in Israel’s short political history, the Jewish state’s political stability depended upon Arab anti-Israeli parties. This disconcerting reality was bolstered by another development: five potential Likud leaders who had been sidelined, badly humiliated and burned by Bibi, ended up establishing new and smaller parties in their attempt to bring Bibi down. This dynamic has all the pathos of a Greek tragedy, and it has led to the lurching Knesset dynamics of the past two years.

A house divided against itself

‘And knowing their thoughts, Yeshua said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and no city or house divided against itself will stand”’ (Matthew 12:25). The people of Israel are divided. The bonds holding their political coalitions together are fragile and can come unglued in the fraction of a second. Whatever the dream is that binds the Jewish people together, it is also jarringly fragmented. People are asking: Is the Return to Zion an act of God? Will the Jewish people’s return to Jerusalem result in all Israel becoming Orthodox Jews? Is Israel to become a Light to the Nations through secular ethics and scientific technology and military cutting-edge armaments? Will the country end up being the exclusively Jewish homeland envisioned by the Hebrew Prophets, or will it be a bi-national secular state, sort of like Lebanon prior to its murderous Civil War of 1975-1982? How will the nation relate to moral issues that the Bible declares to be abominable sins?

Messianic Jewish options?

Jewish Messianic believers in Israel can be found involved in and advocating for many of the available political configurations. In this latest election, two new parties are presenting some new options.

The first party is the Bible Bloc (Gush Tanachi), a fairly new party founded by Avi Lipkin, a traditional Jew. Lipkin sees this bloc as “a Judeo-Christian political party in Israel” whose ideology is “Judeo-Christian Western Civilization and Democracy.” It appeals to Christians, Messianic Jews and those Russian-speakers and Arabs who identify with this message, especially its pro-life platform. This party received 425 votes (0.01%) in the current election.

The second party is a two-month old party called OMETZ (‘Courage’ in Hebrew). It was founded by some of Israel’s top doctors and medical researchers, including Dr. Amir Shahar (Founder and former head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Sheba Hospital, former deputy director of Meir Hospital and currently ER director at Laniado Hospital) and Prof. Zvika Granot, Professor of Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University. The leadership team includes doctors, lawyers, scientists, social activists, security personnel and media personalities.

Part of OMETZ’s six-point program includes seeking justice for the significant amount of Israelis injured during the country’s extensive inoculation campaigns. Another focus involves challenging and overturning the recent rushed-through cabinet executive order (‘The Authorities Law’ – Hoq ha-samchuyot; passed on July 23, 2020) which removes oversight and legislative authority from the Knesset in areas defined and declared by the cabinet to be national or medical emergencies. This law has striking similarities to the Enabling Act of 1933 (Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich; lit.  ‘Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich’). This Nazi law gave the German Cabinet or the Chancellor himself, the power to bypass the system of checks and balances in the government, as well as the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar President. This included the power to create and enforce laws that explicitly violated individual rights prescribed in the German constitution – essentially establishing legal grounds for totalitarian dictatorship. The present Israeli law, combined with Israel’s continuing legal state of emergency, has the ability to lead to the establishment of legal dictatorship in Israel.

OMETZ received 14,781 votes in the current election (0.31%).

Potential ramifications

Provided that coalition negotiations do not encounter unforeseen bumps in the road (which is unlikely), the incoming government will have a stronger military deterrent posture (which can be helpful in a region surrounded by genocidal enemies (like Iran) and unstable peace-partners (like the Gulf States, Jordan and Egypt). As a result, some of the favor granted by Western governments to Israel’s recent left-leaning government may evaporate, and UN pressures may increase for the establishing of a terrorist-ruled Arab state in Judea and Samaria (the biblical names for what is generally referred to as the West Bank). The Abraham Accords (a tenuous agreement built on shifting sands) may go through some shuddering moments as well.

The horse-trading necessary to ensure the loyalty of the religious parties will rack up greater financial stress on Israel’s economy, and will quite likely involve a freeze on greater freedoms in the area of religious pluralism. This would conceivably have chilling effects on the Conservative and Reform Judaism movements in Israel, as well as on Messianic Jews. One of the religious Zionist streams which will be a solid linchpin of the new coalition is led by people who have been associated with Rabbi Meir Kahane, who are outspoken in their anti-Arab words and actions, and who have actively supported persecution of Messianic Jews.

I will raise my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? (Psalm 121:1)

Solomon saw much in his day. His court was full of people begging for favors and, occasionally, for justice. Here is the summation of his thoughts on that matter: “Many seek the ruler’s favor, but justice for mankind comes from YHVH” (Proverbs 29:26). Though justice is not always advocated or actuated by human courts and governments, by lawyers and kings, we would all do well to remember the divine perspective: “Many are the plans in the heart of man, but the counsel of YHVH – that will stand!” (Proverbs 19:21).

“Return, you faithless sons, declares YHVH, for I am a master to you. And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:14-15).

How should we then pray?

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Red heifers and red herrings

Many years ago Rachmiel Frydland (an outstanding Polish-born Messianic Jew and survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto) once told me in Yiddish: “If we give the rabbis the right to define who is a Jew, then we will also be giving them the right to define who is the Messiah.” His pearl of wisdom has remained with me to this day.

When is a Jewish New Year not a Jewish New Year?

Many dear friends have recently celebrated what the rabbis call ‘the Jewish New Year.’ It might be surprising to some that the Book of Exodus defines the real Jewish New Year as occurring at Passover time: “Now YHVH said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, “On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household” (Exodus 12:1-3).

So how did the biblical New Year date (around April) get moved to that of the Babylonian New Year (around September)? You might enjoy reading “Raiders of the Lost Jewish New Year” from September 8, 2018 at https://davidstent.org to find out.

Leviticus 23:23-35 refers to the fifth, sixth and seventh holy convocations as falling in the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar year (called Eitanim –‘the strong ones’ in Hebrew – see 1 Kings 8:1-2). When Israel returned from Babylonian Exile, according to Rabbi Hanina bar Hama (d. 250 A.D.) “the month names came up with them [with the exiles] from Babylon” (Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 1:2, 56d). After the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, Babylonian names were gradually switched for the original Hebrew names. Today eight of the twelve original Hebrew names of the months have disappeared. These Babylonian month names are for the most part names of Babylonian demons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_calendar), even as most modern Western months  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar) are based on Roman deities, while European days of the week are taken from Norse and Germanic gods (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week). The Babylonian royal calendar began its year in Tishrei (biblical Eitanim); the Jewish people gradually adjusted themselves to this international calendar.

The influence of the Exile and our sojourn in Babylon have indeed shaped medieval and modern Jewish history. The primacy given to Babylonian cultural influences gradually led to a weakening among the Jewish people regarding staying faithful to biblical patterns and expressions. But a day is coming when YHVH will bring full restoration to His Jewish people, He will re-tweak our calendars and our feast days, as Zechariah prophesied in Zechariah 7:1-6; 8:18-19. Part of that restoration will involve a return to YHVH’s original calendar in Leviticus 23:2: “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘YHVH’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations – My appointed times are these…”  As Paul says, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Red heifers

On September 15, 2022 five red heifers arrived in Israel. These were raised and brought to Israel with the help of Byron Stinson, a Texas rancher, fundraiser and advisor for the Boneh Israel organization. Stinson is involved as well in the Father’s House Educational Foundation. Stinson is described as a devout Christian searching for and breeding cattle for a sensational purpose – the potential use of their ashes in purifying Levitical priests for ministry in what is called the future Third Temple. The purification ritual is described in the Book of Numbers: “Then YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘This is the statute of the teaching which YHVH has commanded, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted” (Numbers 19:1-2).

The heifers arrived to a ceremony at Ben-Gurion Airport where Temple Institute officials participated in the ceremony, alongside Stinson and Jerusalem and Heritage Ministry Director-General Netanel Isaac. The Temple Institute actively seeks to fashion implements for use in the Third Temple, while educating Jews on how to proactively “act to bring the Holy Temple back to the world [as] a ‘House of prayer for all nations’ . . . Isaiah’s promise [is] that the Third Temple is the secret of world peace and harmony and the hope of all mankind . . .  We truly hope and pray for a time of unparalleled world peace and harmony with the re-building of the Third Temple.”

The Boneh Israel’s website posts links including ‘What You Can Do To Help In The Redemption Process’ and ‘Let’s put out into the universe that we want world peace, the Third Holy Temple & the Red Heifer.’ On Stinson’s website he presents graphics and scriptures commonly used by the new form of Replacement Theology known as ‘Two House’ or Ephraimite teaching. Stinson describes his beliefs on his website: “Byron Stinson and his wife Tammy are Judeo-Christian believers in the God of Abraham and His Messiah from the line of David.” Stinson’s motivation is clearly stated: “The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said . . . The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel. Now they need to build a Temple. But it’s like buying a really nice car. If you don’t have the key, you aren’t going anywhere. The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it’s supposed to.”

In Nicole Jansezian’s pertinent article in All Israel News, she notes that “as a Christian, Stinson believes that it is his obligation to support the Jewish sacrifice even if that is not what he believes himself, because the ‘purpose of the red heifer is to let the veil be lifted.’ Stinson said he is motivated by one main purpose: to foster unity between Christians and Jews.” 

Rachmiel Frydland’s proverb (mentioned above) brings us back to reality here. Will the House of prayer for all nations be established by rabbinic authority? Will the Third Temple usher in unparalleled world peace, harmony and the hope of all mankind? Which biblical prophecies describe the Third Temple and what is the outcome of its construction?

Red herrings

There are three extraordinarily clear passages in the New Covenant which describe the building of the Third Temple in foreboding terms. The first is 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, which tells us that ‘the man of lawlessness’ (what is commonly called ‘the anti-Christ’) will be revealed to the nations in the rebuilt Third Temple:

The second relevant passage is Daniel 9:27, which describes the ‘man of lawlessness’ as connected to the functioning of the sacrificial system in the Third Temple:

The third passage is Matthew 24:15-16, where the abomination of desolation is described as standing in the holy place of the Third Temple:

For followers of Yeshua to aid in the construction or purification of the Third Temple, in cooperation with Orthodox groups who are zealously opposed to Messianic Jews and the Messiahship of Yeshua, is not helping to fulfill prophecy. To the contrary! It is doing fundraising and public relations for the anti-Christ’s ministry.

Over the years we have met Evangelical Gentiles who deeply want to be accepted by Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews. In their way of thinking, the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox are ‘the real Jews.’ Such Evangelicals stay far away from Messianic Jews and do not share their faith with the Jewish people – all in an attempt ‘to foster unity between Christians and Jews.’ This is a false unity which flies in the face of Ephesians 2:11-22:

There is a need for clear biblical thinking here, for spiritual deliverance and revelation, and for repentance for muddying the clear truth of Yeshua’s good news.

It causes sadness to see some Evangelical Gentiles and Jews getting deceived by the red herring of this deceptive ‘Peace Train.’ Neither funds nor prayers should be given to such endeavors which “encourage mankind to support the rebuilding of the Holy [Third] Temple in Jerusalem.”

The Bible speaks prophetically and positively of a Fourth Temple yet to be constructed during the Days of Messiah. Ezekiel 40-48, Isaiah 2:1-4 and 56:7, Zechariah 8, etc., describe this glorious prophetic vision.

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

 FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

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