Yesterday (Sunday January 15, 2017) in the early evening a rooster crowed in Paris. A small droplet of victory fell from Heaven. The “Conférence pour la Paix au Proche-Orient” (Conference for Peace in the Near East) decided not to approve its original detailed pre-conference communiqué which would have been an evil decree ratcheting up ‘lawfare’ against the Jewish state.
Over the past week believers worldwide have called out to Jacob’s God, interceding for their own nations and for the nation of Israel. A commentator for the Israeli Haaretz paper described the final private diplomatic discussions, “There’s complete chaos over the phrasing of the statement. Some of the participants want more details on several points, while others want to set up a monitoring mechanism for after the conference.”
Whereas the delegates to that conference were gathered to “speak lies … and conceive mischief” (Isaiah 59:4), God allowed a temporary confusion of their communications (Genesis 11:17). YHVH granted a temporary reprieve for His people.
In the end the conference adopted a blander declaration, though one which still is not a friendly one for Israelis (www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/full-text-of-middle-east-peace-conference-joint-declaration/). The declaration chose to highlight recent UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (which affirms that Jewish settlements are illegal, and that East Jerusalem, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Temple Mount are Arab sites which belong to the Islamic/Arab world).
Last night’s declaration falls in lockstep with long-term PLO strategic goals at the UN, as well as those of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Islamic_Cooperation). These include:
- support for Islamist terrorism
- delegitimizing the Jewish state and its counter-terror self-defense efforts
- pushing for economic and political boycotts against Israel
- threatening to cut ties with any state that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or that relocates its embassy to that area
So was the downgraded French declaration a win or a loss? Is Israel home free? How are we to understand what just happened? And how can believers continue to intercede in a pro-active way?
Wearing down the saints (Daniel 7:25)
The prophet Daniel tells us that at the End of Days there will be an evil king (popularly called the anti-Christ) who will wear down the saints of God. The enemy uses this same strategy against us in our day as well – causing hopelessness and weariness among believers who stand firm in God’s truth. As in the epic battles that characterize Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, we face simultaneous clashes on multiple fronts.
The Book of Judges describes repeated historical cycles of forty years. Israel’s enemies kept rising up to wipe us out and needed to be defeated “in every generation.” The same is true here. The attempts of the PLO, Hamas, the Islamist world and the secular nations to strike the sword out of Jewish hands and to throw our people into gladiatorial arenas in front of cheering crowds – this is where we Jews often find ourselves. This scenario certainly is the cherished dream of our enemies.
“But the people who know their God will display strength and take action” (Daniel 11:32).
- One main challenge is to press in to know the Lord and His word (Isaiah 8:20), especially the End Time prophecies in the Scriptures
- We need to get our biblical-prophetic radar up and running if we are to wrestle with fast-breaking Middle Eastern events – in order that we may stand victorious at the end of the day.
Let us drill deep into the riches of His revelation: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15).
Let’s commit to walking in balance so that we can help bring balance to others: “From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
Let’s consider three factors that will help us to understand the context of what just went down in Paris:
- the Trump factor
- the PLO strategy
- straight talk about ‘Palestinians’
The shadow of Trump
The entire Paris conference kept glancing furtively over its shoulder at ‘the elephant in the room’ – that unmentionable ‘Trump factor’ that has everyone concerned. The freshly minted ‘Twelve French Ambassadors’ letter’ (see http://davidstent.com/the-crumbling-of-europa/) makes repeated references to the US President-elect as a negative force whose influence must quickly be thwarted. Repeated spoken hints and sly comments by the media on France 24, Al Jazeera, Skye News and CNN bolster the fact that this conference was an attempt to block the incoming US government’s freedom to manoeuver – to tie Trump’s hands regarding Israel, Jerusalem, the UN and the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza.
Only the United Kingdom snubbed the conference (albeit in understated diplomatic fashion), sending junior diplomats and then refusing to sign the final declaration. Whitehall understood that the timing of this conference was chosen by France in collusion with the outgoing Obama Administration in an attempt to give a double black eye – one to the Trump administration and the other to Israel.
In the twilight of the Obama years, the outgoing US administration is acting in an undignified manner. One such example is the passage of recent UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (rushed through at the last minute before the onset of two Jewish holidays as well as Christmas Eve – what Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish would call a ‘Hail Mary pass’). It is of the same cloth as the time-honored black arts of diplomats. Both its timing and its ‘State Department deniability’ (exposed as lies by British, Egyptian and Israeli intelligence) show a vindictiveness toward the Jewish state that Israelis have understood and internalized (as recent Israeli opinion polls reflect).
An outgoing US President is not supposed to be involved in political shenanigans. After his party’s candidate loses an election, the sitting POTUS usually sets down both his pen and his phone, taking a low-key and conciliatory stance in political matters. He does not shove through maverick policies harmful to US allies in defiance of the incoming President’s stated goals.
- One of the hidden reasons for this conference is that France, the European Union, the Arab League and the OIC are using “diplomacy to wage war by other means” against Israel and the upcoming US Administration
The PLO strategy – hijacking the West
The UN, the EU, the Quartet, the G20, the OIC, the Arab League and the US – all of these nations and organizations have drunk the poison Kool-Aid freely dispensed at the PLO lemonade stand. Few of these nations understand how deeply they have been systematically lied to and deceived regarding Israel and the Palestinians. This section takes a brief look at that brainwashing process.
Back in 1960 the Soviet Union was able to pass a UN Resolution which supported anti-Western guerilla warfare and terrorism (www.un.org/en/decolonization/declaration.shtml). Within a few years the word ‘terrorism’ was redefined. Now Israeli self-defense and counterterrorism operations were considered terrorism, while PLO violence against Jewish civilians was defined as a national liberation movement combatting colonialism.
Since the combined military forces of the Arab world were not able to crush Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, a strategic decision was taken to move the struggle to the UN. It has been said that diplomacy is war by other means, so perhaps Israel could be defeated at the UN through ‘collective delegitimization’ and lawfare. First the Arab refugees would be labeled an indigenous native people who were victims of colonialism – ‘the Palestinian people’ – while Israel was transformed into a ‘colonialist, imperialist and racist state which occupies another people’s land.’
The PLO’s Palestinian National Covenant (1964, amended 1968) was gradually incorporated into various UN General Assembly resolutions. This Covenant is still legal and very much in force (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp; https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/288BEE5ACF03674985256F55006DD36B). Here are some of its highlights:
- Palestine’s borders include the entire state of Israel (Articles 1 and 2)
- Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This is overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase (Article 9)
- The aim of the PLO is the elimination of Zionism in Palestine (Article 15)
- The 1947 UN Partition Plan is illegal and inconsistent with the UN Charter, particularly the right to self-determination (Article 19)
- The Balfour Declaration is deemed null and void. The Jews have no historical or religious ties to Palestine (Article 20)
- The PLO rejects any solution less than the total liberation of Palestine though armed revolution (Article 21)
- Zionism is imperialism, racist, colonial and fascist. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world (Article 22)
It is chilling to see how the Paris declaration of this past Sunday restates many of these PLO points:
- Jewish presence must be eliminated in Palestinian areas
- Jewish settlement is illegal in Palestine
- Jews have no historical or religious ties to the Temple Mount, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, the City of David, etc.
- Jewish settlement in Palestine is colonialist
- Israel’s intransigence is a constant threat vis-à-vis peace in the Middle East
Dining with Hitler – Palestinian Replacement Theology
The UN often refers to the ‘inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.” Yet that concept is a rather new one for the UN. Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967 makes no reference to Palestinians, only to ‘the refugee problem’ (https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7D35E1F729DF491C85256EE700686136). Between 1948 and 1967 neither Jordan, Egypt nor Syria ever recognized a Palestinian state or a Palestinian people – neither did any other Arab or Islamic state.
It was only in December 1969 (five years after the PLO was founded) that the UN first spoke of the “problem of the Palestine Arab refugees” and the “inalienable rights of the people of Palestine” (https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/41F2C6DCE4DAA765852560DF004E0AC8).
- In point of historical fact there has never been a country called ‘Palestine’ and there has never been a ‘Palestinian’ citizenship. The world has been manipulated into accepting a virtual reality called ‘the Palestinian people.’
Though politicians may focus on the contrast between direct negotiations (Israel and West Banks/Gazans) and international conferences (foreign supervision), some simple and foundational facts are usually overlooked:
- The leadership of the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza is corrupt, violent toward its own people, terrorist and not known for telling the truth. Israel does not have a partner for peace, and no agreement the PLO signs can be trusted.
The Arab leadership of the West Bank and Gaza is divided between jihadi Hamas in Gaza (whose covenant calls for Israel’s total destruction) and the Islamic PLO in Judea and Samaria (whose covenant calls for Israel’s total destruction).
- Both wings of what is called ‘the Palestinian movement’ are terrorist enemies of Israel. Both seek its destruction. Terrorists do not make good peace partners.
PLO President Abbas finished his 4 year term 8 years ago and still continues as President. Hamas kneecapped and tortured PLO agents as soon as it won democratic elections in Gaza. Neither Hamas nor the PLO are democratic institutions. Gaza is under Shari’a Islamic dictatorship, while 81% of all West Bankers see the PLO leadership as being irrevocably corrupt (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey poll, June 21, 2016 – www.pcpsr.org/en/node/658).
- The absence of democracy and the deep corruption in the PLO mean that no dependable peace agreement can signed.
The methods of the Nazis (boycotting of Jewish businesses, Brown shirt terror attacks on Jewish civilians, blitzkrieg military attacks on Jewish towns) are being actively imitated by PLO and Hamas today. Rocket attacks on Israeli towns, cities and farms; individual terror attacks with trucks, knives, pistols, rifles and bombs; Arab and Leftist calls for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) – as it was in the days of Adolf, so the same onslaught is happening in our day.
- The focus of both Arab terror and Nazi terror is on the Jewish people. Both terror groups bring forth the same bloody results
Many years ago the God of Israel asked a telling question: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). Today this question needs to be directed at the Arab leadership of the West Bank and Gaza.
- At this point, barring a massive spiritual repentance on the part of PLO and Hamas leaders, there is no one for the Israelis to sit down with to discuss peace. There is also nothing to talk about. The so-called ‘peace process’ is shot full of lies. The two-state solution can only give birth to an Arab state which is terrorist, Islamist and fascist. Western attempts to force Israel into acquiescing in the illegitimate birth of such a state are evil. These nations are actually ‘aiding and abetting’ a criminal political scheme.
Man of Peace
One of the goals of the Paris Conference was to create momentum, to start a ‘Palestinian State’ snowball rolling which would not be easily stopped. The original communiqué of that Conference, the subsequent letter of the Twelve French Ambassadors, UN Security Council Resolution 2334, the Palestinian National Covenant, the Hamas Covenant (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp) – all these are milestones and weathervanes. They portend international precedents and political directions which are shifting the world agenda solidly against the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Bob Dylan says it well: “He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue. He knows every song of love that ever has been sung. Good intentions can be evil. Both hands can be full of grease. You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace” (“Man of Peace”, words and music Bob Dylan © 1983 by Special Rider Music).
How should we then pray?
- Pray for the leaders of the nations to have deception broken off of them regarding the ‘Palestine’ question and for them to make righteous choices
- Pray that God’s heart for His Jewish people would be transplanted into the heart of your nation’s leaders
- Pray for the leaders of Israel to have deception and fear broken off of them and for them to make courageous choices
- Pray for the protection, strengthening, revelation and salvation of the Jewish people, and that they may lean on Him who can keep them from all evil and all destruction
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
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