A planned dismantling of Israel (46 views)
From:  David (DavidABrown)    8/8/2003 6:15 pm  
To:  ALL    
 
  681.1  
 
Source: www.JPost.com

On Sunday, July 27, just hours after abducted IDF soldier Oleg Shaikhet's body was found, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah broadcast a call for the kidnapping of more Israelis. 

Just a few days later, 17-year-old Dana Benett went missing, and then 19-year-old Eliezer Zusia Klughaupt disappeared. Several Israelis have reported attempted kidnappings some at gunpoint from which they were able to escape. Most of these attempted abductions emanated from the same area in the North. All have taken place since Nasrallah's call. 

The fact that Benett and Klughaupt disappeared shortly after Nasrallah gave the order to kidnap Israelis naturally lends to the impression that Hizbullah has Israeli Arabs working for it who, like al-Qaida members, receive their orders from television broadcasts by their commander. 

This week the IDF and the government both fingered Hizbullah and its patron, Iran, as the forces behind the Fatah terror cells that have not ceased operations during the hudna. Hizbullah is also known to be the source of Hamas's recently acquired ability to increase the range of Kassam rockets and to manufacture them in Samaria as well as the Gaza Strip. 

During its war against Israel in Lebanon, Hizbullah operated on three levels simultaneously. 

It conducted a guerrilla war of attrition against IDF forces in Lebanon; it conducted a terrorist war by shooting Katyusha rockets at the North; and it conducted psychological-warfare operations. Each of these operational tactics complemented the others, and together they brought about the achievement of Hizbullah's short-term objective IDF withdrawal from Lebanon without Hizbullah's dismantlement or disarmament. Hizbullah's long-term objective the destruction of Israel and its replacement by an Islamic state was advanced during those years mainly through its attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe and South America. 

Another important aspect of Hizbullah's strategy against Israel in Lebanon involved the interruption of its guerrilla and terror operations with limited cease-fires. These cease-fires worked to force Israel to restrain its counterterror operations against Hizbullah, while placing no effective limitations on Hizbullah itself. 

Hizbullah's actions against Israel were informed by its awareness of our diplomatic isolation. Understanding that Israel has no allies other than the US, Hizbullah could be certain that no international body, NGO, or alliance would back Israel's right to defend itself in Lebanon. 

With Israel's precipitous unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hizbullah achieved its short-term goal. Since then it has been moving forward with its long-term goal of destroying Israel itself. Its refusal to recognize the international border set the international context of its continued aggression. The UN's unwillingness to stand up for Israel on the issue of borders proved Hizbullah's assumption that Israel has no international support regardless of its actions was correct. Its current cooperation with Palestinian terrorist organizations and the Palestinian Authority and its employment of Israeli Arab operatives within Israel allow Hizbullah to work toward its objective from its safe base in Lebanon. 

There it continues to arm itself with tens of thousands of rockets now capable of hitting Haifa. The presence of this rocket arsenal gives Hizbullah an ever increasing military deterrent against Israel. 

For their part, the Palestinians have from the beginning of their war against Israel three years ago invoked the Hizbullah precedent. On every score, on every level they have repeated Hizbullah's strategy. On the guerrilla-warfare front, the PA has deployed its security forces in limited shooting attacks against IDF soldiers. 

Then too, armed militias working with PA security forces have been involved in other guerrilla operations against IDF forces, like planting roadside bombs against tanks and firing at IDF outposts along the border with Egypt to prevent the uncovering of weapons smuggling tunnels.
Ambushes of forces manning roadblocks have been conducted in Judea and Samaria to great effect.
On the terror front, terror cells have vastly increased the lethality of their attacks. If a decade ago such attacks were characterized mainly by shooting and stabbing incidents, today the suicide bomber has become the chosen weapon. And aping Hizbullah again, the Palestinians have acquired remote access to Israeli civilian targets by developing the Kassam rockets. 

From the perspective of psychological operations, the Palestinians are of course operating with distinct advantages over Hizbullah. Not only do the Palestinians have a large constituency of Israeli supporters for their operations against Israel, they have the legitimacy of the entire international community, including the US, for their phase-one goal the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem and the expulsion of Jews from the areas under its control. The US is even unwilling openly to oppose the Palestinian demand for the transfer of millions of Palestinian refugees into Israel. 

The Palestinians have succeeded in their campaign to convince both Israel and the rest of the world that their declared intention to destroy Israel is simply rhetoric. As well, through the road map, they have achieved their most stellar success. The road map grants them their phase-one goal without their even having to negotiate an accord with Israel. The road map dictates that the international community, not Israel, will be the granter of Palestinian sovereignty and the arbiter of when the Palestinians will be accorded such sovereignty. 

Through their actions today, the Palestinians have shown that like Hizbullah, they intend to achieve their phase-one goal without disarming or disengaging from their military campaign against Israel. Like Nasrallah, Mahmoud Abbas has made clear that he will not lift a finger against Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, or any other terror group that is or may begin operating from the territory the PA controls. 

By maintaining their refusal to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, their insistence on the "right of return" and their identification of Israeli Arabs as Palestinians, the Palestinians are setting the context for the next phase of their campaign against Israel, which will begin immediately after they are granted statehood. 

Already in the present phase of their campaign, Palestinian terror groups have utilized Israeli Arabs to carry out attacks against Israel. Through its alliance with the Islamic Movement, Hamas has made official inroads into the Israeli-Arab community. For its part, the PA has its representatives in the Knesset, from Ahmed Tibi to Azmi Bishara, who wage a continuous campaign to delegitimize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. 

Neither the Palestinians nor Hizbullah have made any real attempt to hide their actions or intentions. The actions of both the Israeli and US governments have shown that there is no reason for them to bother. Where Hizbullah is concerned, both Israel and the US have made concerted efforts since May 2000 to ignore the fact that the group is involved in achieving its long-term goal of destroying Israel. 

Its sporadic and deadly attacks against the Northern have gone unanswered. Who recalls Ehud Barak's promise that the minute Hizbullah tried to act against Israel, the IDF would return to Lebanon and destroy the organization? What price has Syria been forced to pay for its direct armament of Hizbullah and its continued refusal to allow the Lebanese army to deploy to the border with Israel? 

As for the Palestinians, both Israel and the US are pretending that by repeating the exact policy adopted with such abysmal result toward Hizbullah, the opposite result will be achieved. Both claim that by granting legitimacy to the PA, it will somehow be magically transformed from a terrorist actor to a peaceful neighbor. 

The toll this irrational policy will take on US national security interests will be indirect. The decision to embrace a terror regime will no doubt erode America's deterrence against the terror groups it is actively fighting. But for Israel, the decision to repeat the strategic catastrophe of Lebanon with the Palestinians puts the future of the country itself in jeopardy. 

Today, at the end stages of the PA's phase one, the Palestinians are developing rocket and artillery capabilities in Judea and Samaria. These capabilities will of course cancel any military value accrued by the defensive fence, which is being built to protect against phase one attacks Palestinian bombers. The minute the Palestinians achieve statehood, they will no doubt use their territory as a training ground for Arabs who live on the Israeli side of the fence. Their rocket and artillery arsenals will allow them to attack from a safe distance. 

Just as in Lebanon, the government claims that if the Palestinians attack after they receive a state, the IDF will be free to go in and destroy their military capabilities. 

But given the unconditional support the Palestinians now receive from the international community headed by the US, it is difficult to imagine that Israel will have more international backing for such a move in the future than it has today. Just as in Lebanon, we will sit on our side of the fence, worriedly count the number of rockets the Palestinians are building, and do nothing. 

One needs to wonder what is motivating Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who in 1982 had the strategic vision to understand that a PLO base in Lebanon was an unacceptable risk to the security of the state. How is it that he is financing and building Fatahland in Israel's heartland? Ma'ariv investigative reporter Yoav Yitzhak reported last Friday that Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein has been delaying his investigation into alleged bribery charges against Sharon to allow him to advance in his peace bid. 

One would hate to think that given the precarious nature of Israel's situation, an unelected civil servant is gearing up to push Sharon into further imperiling the security of the state.



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
 From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-10 12:21 pm  
To:  ALL    
 
    
 
JNW EDITORIAL
The incalculable cost - revisited
By Stan Goodenough

Jerusalem - December 10, 2003

A few weeks ago, I penned an article I called, "The incalculable cost of Palestine."

Spelling out the de facto price that would be paid for the creation of a Palestinian state on the biblical heartland of Israel, I said that among other things, its birth would:


Mark the beginning of the end of the Jews as a nation. 
Lead to the eventual extinction of Bible-believing Christianity. 
Creating Palestine in the biblical heartland of Israel, I wrote, would "sever the bonds holding the Jews together as a nation, remove the ground on which Judaism stands, and cut off the faith supply that has nourished and kept the Jews alive for the last 2000 years."

I argued that it would also "shatter the biblical foundations on which much of Christianity stands."

The article provoked a divided response: Some thought it was "wonderful" and "anointed," others wondered whether I had fled my faith or spent excess time in the Jerusalem sun. Quite clearly I had committed the cardinal writers' error of assuming most my readers were on the same page, so to speak, and would therefore know where I was coming from.

I'd be grateful if those I thus abused would forgive me, and would follow through the rest of this article as I try to clarify and re-stress what I was really saying before.

Actually, I am thankful for the opportunity to so quickly revisit this subject, for I believe it lies at the heart of the Middle East conflict. Not until it is recognized and fully engaged will we Christians who are deeply concerned for the future survival and prosperity of the Jewish homeland be truly effective in our efforts to help secure her.

"The incalculable cost" was written as a "what if," a wake-up call. I wanted to startle the reader into realizing what is actually at stake concerning Israel's fate. My intention was to strip away the layers that blur and fudge the issue, and bare the core for those who have spiritual eyes to see.

Let me stress my personal starting point: I am a Bible believer. No philosophy, no revolutionary scientific theories or discoveries, no pleas for "reason," no scoffing, no threats, no bribes, no "enlightenment" - nothing will change what I believe. For me, forever, the Bible contains the divinely given words and wisdom of the Creator of all things. He cannot be wrong. He cannot change. He cannot be ganged up on, outnumbered, out-witted or out-maneuvered. He is God. And there is no other.

This Being, Who alone has the right to do so, and Who knows the end of all things from the beginning, designated the swathe of land between the River of Egypt and the Euphrates as the national home of the descendants of the man He renamed Israel.

In the pages of the Bible, He is referred to 16 times as the God of Abraham, 8 times as the God of Isaac, 22 times as the God of Jacob, and more than 200 times as the God of Israel. He states categorically and unequivocally that the aforementioned land is His personal possession. And He tells first Abraham, then Isaac, and then Jacob that He has given this land to them and their descendants after them, in this bloodline, "as an everlasting possession."

He has given it to nobody else - not to Esau, not to Ishmael, not to the Arabs, not to the Palestinians. The land belongs, only, to Israel. Others may live here of course, but only Israel may be sovereign.

In order to have this land, Israel needs to enter and take possession of it. The ancient forebears of modern-day Israel were commanded to enter and possess it, and the prophets foretold a day when their descendants would be brought back to the same land, and be settled in it once again - this time forever.

[Ed note: The LORD is not hesitant to use the word "settle" to describe His replanting of the Jews in their land; I too, therefore, choose to use the words "settle," "settlement" and "settler" - without apology and without shame.]

This instruction to settle, and justification for settling, is predicated upon the biblical promise and injunction. That is to say, it is the Bible that imparts to Israel the right and the command to be in this specific land, and to rule over it.

Throw away the Bible, and Israel loses that right. At best, what they are then left with, in the aftermath of the 2000-year effort to annihilate the Jews, is the right to a haven state somewhere in the world - for example in Uganda, or, as Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin suggested just this past weekend, in Europe.

The Bible is the ONLY document that gives the Jews the inalienable right to this land. The Balfour Declaration, League of Nations and United Nations rulings, white papers and "peace" treaties - all of these are contestable and open to alteration or reversal if enough of the world's nations decide it should be so.

For Bible believers, the Bible alone has the authority to back the claim to this land as the Jews'. And, to get to the crux of the matter, the Bible specifically and intentionally singles out the very part of the land that is today on the chopping block for a Palestinian state as the heart of Israel's "eternal inheritance."

For it was in Samaria, at Bethel, where Jacob (Israel) lay sleeping when God said to him: "he land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants." (Genesis 28:13 cf. Jeremiah 31:5) He was not lying on the beaches of Tel Aviv but on the rocky slopes of the central "West Bank."

Daily, for more than 2000 years as they wandered among the nations of the world, the Jews have been reminding God of His promise to restore them to this very land - the land of the Patriarchs - to Jerusalem, and to the Temple Mount. Their belief in Him and in His promises sustained them through the darkest history imaginable. It gave them reason to hope when it seemed futile to do so. It was a goal, an aim, in fact a beacon, holding their identity and their eventual future out before them - something real and promising to strive towards.

Through unmentionable horrors, to the very doors of the gas chambers, the Jews clung to their belief in the Author of the Bible, the One Who founded the nation and gave it its land: "Sh'ma, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad" - "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One."

It was this faith that enabled Israel to resist all efforts to absorb them as a people, to render them extinct as a race. And the faith was, and is, inextricably in God and in His promises of this specific part of the land universally called the "Occupied Territories."

It doesn't take rocket science to grasp what a devastating blow it would be to this, for so long, tenacious people should the physical embodiment of what they have been clinging to for fully half their existence as a nation, finally and irretrievably be taken from them.

We should not fool ourselves either with pious proclamations about God being able to restore it all again. Certainly from the world's point of view it will be irretrievable. Once Palestine is declared a state and officially welcomed into the world community of nations, there can be no going back. For the Gentile nations there will be celebrations and rejoicing. For Israel, the birth of Palestine will spell catastrophe.

Oh, those Jews who have long ago traded in their belief in the Bible and its God won't bat an eyelid. In fact, their dream of being fully accepted by the Gentile nations - of becoming just like them - will appear closer to realization than ever.

But in the Diaspora, it was seldom the eviscerated Jew who carried the flame of Am Yisrael intact through persecution and out the other side. It was those who had faith; those who had a reason to believe in God, and in His promises to restore them to their land.

Which brings me to where I was before:

Being a publicly professing Bible-believer, I naturally never intended to communicate a belief that the Jewish people could be eradicated, or that the hope we true Christians are living in could be taken away from us. I wanted to communicate the calamitous nature of the threat.

I am convinced that not until we recognize the extent of this peril will a fire be lit under us to try to counter it.

When I wrote, I was caught up in that tension that exists between God's foreknowledge of all that will come to pass, in this case Israel's assured survival into eternity, and in the part we have to play to bring it all about.

Some people believe that we need not concern ourselves overly much about Israel's future because God has it all in control. Yes He does. But I believe at the same time that we are a part of that unfolding picture that He has ever open before Him, and we can either rise to fulfill our destiny and help Israel fulfill hers, or we can decide to "leave it all up to Him."

I believe God is looking for those who would "stand in the gap" for Israel at this time. (Ezekiel 22:30). Standing in the gap means interceding in prayer on Israel's behalf before the Lord, as Daniel did. (see Daniel 9). But I believe it means more than just praying, and then chastising Israel from afar for not being able to stand up against international pressure and claiming all its land. Standing in the gap for me means we are also to stand between Israel and our Gentile rulers who choose to deal with the Jewish people and their state in an unjust way.

To play our part, or to leave it up to God? The following example may help to further clarify this question:

It's almost universally believed that, but for the Holocaust, Israel would not have been restored to life. Had they not felt so guilty for abandoning the Jews to the Nazis, the nations of the world would never have permitted the re-establishment of the Jewish state.

Should Christians, aware of Israel's prophesied future restoration, have therefore sat quietly by (as, to their eternal shame, so many did,) because it was all "foreknown," all "predicted," and they knew it would all "work out" in the end?

Certainly not!

Just as - had we lived then - we should have done everything in our power to save the Jews from Hitler's Holocaust, so too should we do all we can today to prevent Israel's enemies from pursuing the 2003 version of that very same plan. There is no question that the Arab and Islamic world is bent on wiping out the Jews just as surely as Hitler was.

Effectively it has been the same plan all along: From the day Pharaoh commanded the Israelite boys be drowned in the Nile, right up to today, the enemy has sought to destroy the Jews and, with them, the channel God designed to bring hope and blessing and peace into the world.

We should have resisted it before, and we should resist it now. Establishing Palestine would drive a barrage of nails into Israel's coffin - something I believe this generation's Christians should oppose with everything we have.


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Content copyright Jerusalem Newswire 2003


David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
 From:  Watchman77    Dec-13 4:37 am  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (3 of 9)  
 
  681.3 in reply to 681.2  
 
We should have resisted it before, and we should resist it now. Establishing Palestine would drive a barrage of nails into Israel's coffin - something I believe this generation's Christians should oppose with everything we have.

AMEN!
Love & Blessings 
YSICJ Earla

I share, because I care, if you don't want it, don't take it, leave it for someone who does....(but please don't chew it up and spit it out, it makes it very distateful to others)
Watchman77 


http://forums.delphiforums.com/Godswrath/start 
(Watch ye therefore and Pray always)

  

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.
   Pat Marvenko Smith


  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. Rev 19:11

  
grandma and Allie
 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-13 10:13 am  
To:  Watchman77    (4 of 9)  
 
  681.4 in reply to 681.3  
 
Hi Watchman,

Well said.

We all need to support Israel.

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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  From:  Watchman77    Dec-13 1:59 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (5 of 9)  
 
  681.5 in reply to 681.4  
 
David I have always had a love for Israel and the jewish people even before I became a christian and read the word of God and found out just how much He really does love them... I knew He must love them very much for them to still be in existance, IMHO a very definite proof of His love for them. But since becoming a christian and reading His word for myself and seeing His great love and mercy for the jewish people and how He says He will restore Israel and she will be the tool that He rules the world with and that she is the apple of His eye, Israel and her people have become a big part of my prayer life, I pray always for the peace of Jerusalem, knowing that only the coming of our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ will bring that peace.  In Jeremiah 51:50 when it is speaking of the destruction that is to come to Babylon it tells those who escape the sword to let Jerusalem come into their minds, IMHO this is God's way of saying look at My faithfulness to Jerusalem, trust in that. And we are told in Psalms 122:6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, this should be on the mind of every christian, and not the false peace that the AC and FP will bring to her, but the Prince of Peace who will bring everlasting peace to Israel and the rest of mankind \o/ 
Love & Blessings 
YSICJ Earla

I share, because I care, if you don't want it, don't take it, leave it for someone who does....(but please don't chew it up and spit it out, it makes it very distateful to others)
Watchman77 


http://forums.delphiforums.com/Godswrath/start 
(Watch ye therefore and Pray always)

  

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.
   Pat Marvenko Smith


  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. Rev 19:11

  
grandma and Allie
 
  
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  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-13 11:56 pm  
To:  Watchman77    (6 of 9)  
 
  681.6 in reply to 681.5  
 
Hi,

Excellent post.

 

Yes, we need to be in constant prayer for Israel,  the Church, ourselves and everything else that comes to mind.

 

One of my favorite accounts in the Bible is in Genesis when Joseph reveals himself to His brethren and what a momentous moment it is and it is a Prophecy about Jesus revealing Himself to His brethren the Jews who in His visit His brethren did not recognize Him.

 

God Bless you,

David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
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Message 7 of 9 was Deleted    



  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-28 8:40 pm  
To:  ALL   (8 of 9)  
 
  681.8 in reply to 681.1  
 
* Note I deleted post #7 it was my post and the formatting came out wrong I'll repost it in #9.

 



David A. Brown
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   From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-28 8:47 pm  
To:  ALL   (9 of 9)  
 
  681.9 in reply to 681.1  
 
Dec. 28, 2003
UK blasts PA ploy over Christmas card
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

  

His Excellency the President of Palestine brandishes his Christmas greeting from the Right Honourable Tony Blair
Photo: AP 
 
 
A diplomatic row has erupted between the Mukhata in Ramallah and Downing Street over a letter of greetings British Prime Minister Tony Blair is said to have sent to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. 

Last week the PA's official news agency, Wafa, reported that Blair, like many world leaders, had extended Christmas greetings to Arafat. Blair's purported message included the wish that Palestinians "realize their hopes in establishing an independent Palestinian state," Wafa said. 

But Downing Street said it was unaware of any Christmas greetings being sent to Arafat by Blair. 

A spokeswoman for Blair in London said: "We are not aware of such a message being sent, so I'm not sure what they're reporting, to be honest. The prime minister doesn't usually send out messages at this time of the year. It is not something that we do. I'm afraid we're not aware of any specific message being sent." 

The denial has embarrassed the Palestinian leadership, which on Saturday issued a statement retracting the original story. The statement, carried by Wafa, said: "Before we say anything, we wish to apologize for making a mistake by reporting that Mr. Blair had sent a cable of greetings to President Arafat in which he expresses his hope that the Palestinian people would realize their hopes of establishing an independent Palestinian state." 

The statement said in its corrected version of the story that Blair had sent a "traditional greeting card" in response to a similar greeting card from Arafat on the occasion of Christmas. 

The statement said that the Palestinians could not understand why the British prime minister's spokeswoman had to deny the story in such an enthusiastic manner. "Most probably this denial stems from the fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, an accusation which the West is usually afraid of, although the contents [of the greetings] did not include anti-Semitic [remarks] or similar things." 

Hinting that the British government's denial was the result of pressure from Israel, the statement went on to ask, "What did Wafa say in its original story? Why all the fuss and who's behind it?" 

The statement concluded by lashing out at the position and tone of the British prime minister's spokeswoman. "The British spokeswoman should have talked about a greeting card without going into the details of an all-out denial with a feeling of guilt," it said. "The hopes of the Palestinian people and their independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, are legitimate. Britain is first and foremost responsible for the nakba [catastrophe; the term used by Palestinians to describe the creation of Israel in 1948]." 

In Ramallah, a senior PA official described the British denial as "tasteless." He said Arafat was upset with the way the British prime minister chose to deal with the issue. "There was no need for such a strong denial, because we are talking about greetings, not political statements," he added.



 


David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
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