The United Nations Security Council Resolution 280 of March 18, 1994, condemned the Hebron massacre and declared Jerusalem “occupied territory.” For the United Nations to say Jerusalem is “occupied territory” presupposes Jerusalem rightfully belongs to the Palestinian Arabs. This was most unfortunate.
Facts of History
Archeological digs establish a 3,000-year-old history of a Jewish Jerusalem. Over one thousand years later, in CE 70, Jerusalem fell to Rome. Notwithstanding the determined effort thereafter by Gentiles—especially Christians and Moslems—to ban Jews from Jerusalem, the first recorded census of Jerusalem taken in 1844 revealed the Jews as being the majority population. Jews have continued to be the majority.
When Israel became an independent state in 1948, armies from seven Arab nations invaded the new-born state. Outnumbered 100 to one, Israel’s rag-tag army pushed back the invaders. Divine providence was telling the world something about whose land it is. The only exception to Israel’s rightful victory was East Jerusalem.
The Arab State of Transjordan captured East Jerusalem, expelled all Jews and destroyed or desecrated all Jewish holy sites. This is when Jerusalem became known as “occupied territory.” Also defying the UN mandate, Transjordan occupied the west bank of the River Jordan. No longer limited to being “trans” (across) Jordan (the East Bank), Transjordan reduced its name to simply Jordan, now ruling over both the occupied West Bank and the original East Bank of Jordan.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, under the threat of being “pushed into the sea” by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, Israel actually liberated the “occupied territory” of Jerusalem and granted free access to Jews, Christians and Moslems to worship at their holy sites. Israel also liberated the West Bank and Gaza. How easily recent history is forgotten and/or distorted. Read the history of how the Palestinians were treated by their Arab brothers—the Jordanians and the Egyptians. Under the Israeli government they now live in comparative luxury.
The UN has had the audacity to call Jerusalem and the “West Bank” “occupied territories” only when Israel regained them in the 1967 War. In 1922, the League of Nations recognized the legal, moral and historic right of the Jewish people to a national homeland in Palestine—including Jerusalem. If the Jews had a right to Jerusalem in 1922, that right is valid today. But since then, vast oil reserves were discovered in Arab lands. The nations are compromising Israel’s rights for their own oil interests. Consequently, the U.S. administration and the UN define East Jerusalem as “occupied territory.” No part of Jerusalem is “occupied territory.”
Jerusalem—indivisible—belongs to Israel. The same logic applies to the West Bank. Unfortunately, Israel’s government is too intimidated by tremendous pressure from the U.S. and other world powers to insist on its historic right to Judea—Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.”
Divine Providence
Since its statehood, the hand of divine providence has more than once worked on behalf of Israel the miracle of the Six-Day War the SCUD missiles of the Gulf War. The nations had better understand, “For he that touched you [Israel] toucheth the apple of his [God’s] eye” (Zechariah 2:8). The nations had better heed the biblical warning of divine providence: “In that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut to pieces” (Zechariah 12:3).
The First Hebron Massacre
Jews lived almost uninterruptedly in Hebron for over 3000 years until 1929, when Arabs (who were not called “Palestinians” until the late 1960s) massacred 69 Jewish people in Hebron and forced the British to terminate all Jewish presence in Hebron.
The Worth of Jewish Life
Hitler found that Gentiles considered Jewish life cheap. He put a price on their heads for safe passage to other nations. To his surprise no one was willing to pay the price. They ended up in “The Final Solution”—the extermination of all Jews. Amazingly, Jewish life seems to remain an expendable commodity today. Several years ago, Palestinians massacred 22 worshipers in the largest synagogue in Istanbul. There were bloody attacks in synagogues in Copenhagen, Antwerp, Paris and Rome. Islamic and Palestinian groups rushed forward proudly to claim the “honor” for these attacks. There were other attacks, such as, the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinians at the Munich Olympics.
Since the signing of the Washington Peace Accords, over 30 Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. All these murders of Israelis were not acts of a single distressed person but were planned by groups which the majority (or near majority) of Palestinians support. These terrorists’ acts were not renounced by the Palestinian people or their leaders. Remember how the Palestinians cheered as Iraqi SCUD missiles flew overhead on their murderous mission to Israel? The Hebron massacre was the act of one person. All the rest of Israel—including government leaders and settlers—renounced and denounced this horrible act.
Where are the outcries of world opinion or UN resolutions condemning the repeated atrocities by Palestinians? Why is the world so insensitive to the shedding of Jewish blood by many Arabs? Yet, when one sick Israeli committed an atrocity, the PLO—backed by an oil-rich Arab block—pressured the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Israel.
Where violence is concerned, neither Israel nor any other nation is above scrutiny; but the persistency of outcry against Israel is suspect. Where Israel has erred, it will receive Divine retribution. The killing of innocent Israelis or Arabs is most tragic. We grieve for both the Israelis and Arabs who have had their loved ones torn from them.
The Historical Perspective
At the breaking up of the Turkish Empire by the Allies at the end of World War I, both Arabs and Jews requested independent states. The world powers were generous in the extreme to the Arabs by granting them 21 independent Arab states, covering 5,414,000 square miles. The Jews asked for only 0.9 percent of that vast territory. In 1917 and 1921 the Allied Powers agreed to this request. As a consequence of “oil diplomacy” Israel now possesses a mere 0.2 percent of it.
Divine Providence
There is a higher dimension in this issue—God. The new Israeli state is a miracle of history prophesied in the Bible. Its boundaries, which include the Golan Heights and the West Bank, were foretold (Genesis 15:18-21; Jeremiah 16:13-15; Zechariah 10:9-10; Micah 7:14). Its reclamation of wastelands (Amos 9:14), climatic changes (Zechariah 8:11-12; Joel 2:21-23), and capture of Old Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:5-6) were prophesied long ago. Eventually the Arabs will recognize Israel’s rights. Then Israel and her Arab neighbors shall be “a blessing in the midst of the earth” (Isaiah 19:24) in God’s Kingdom “when the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” Isaiah 2:3.
“In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” Zechariah 8:23.
Additional Resources:
PDF: “Will Israel Survive the End Times?”
Video: “Israel Fulfilling Prophecy”
Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #1290: “Is the Jewish Nation Really God’s Chosen People?”
The history and destiny of the nation of Israel and the favor with God
Preview Video
CQ Rewind Show Notes
