Israel and Gaza 2024
The judgment of the International Court of Justice released on 26 January in response to a case brought by South Africa was shaped by both political expediency and justice, which is not surprising given it is a human court formed on political lines.
I am more interested in the judgment of God.
The defenders of Israel say, "This justifies that?"
But they forget that the standard God requires of Israel is much higher because they claim to be his people, as is his standard for the United States because they claim to be a Christian nation.
God's calling gives responsibilities, not rights and privileges.
Those with the most power have the greatest responsibility.
The state of Israel is exposing its ugly heart to God before the face of the people of the world.
Indiscriminate bombing followed by a brutal invasion.
Twenty-six thousand people dead, the majority of them women and children.
Sixty-five thousand injured.
Thousands are missing, many of them dying a slow and painful death under rubble.
Hospitals and schools destroyed.
Civilian infrastructure demolished.
Half the houses in Gaza destroyed.
Property ownership records have been destroyed.
Pregnant women without care.
New-born babies dying due to lack of nutrition and medical care.
Children having limbs amputated without anaesthetics.
Deliveries of food, water and medical supplies cut off.
Millions starved and thirsty.
Sickness and disease spreading.
Thousands living in tents during winter.
Thirty thousand bombs and shells have been dropped on Gaza — eight times more bombs than the U.S. dropped on Iraq during six years of war.
Hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs have obliterated densely populated areas, including refugee camps.
Huge bombs dropped on the places where people were told to go for safety.
Vulgar and violent behaviour by IDF soldiers,
Shooting Israeli hostages,
Gassing three Israeli hostages.
Surrendering prisoners shot dead.
A man waving a white flag shot dead.
Israel is exposing the brutality, anger, hatred and fear in its heart before the entire world.
People with their eyes open are seeing through Israeli lies and justifying propaganda.
The ugly heart of the Israeli nation is being revealed.
Their defenders will continue to deny the truth,
but anyone with half-open eyes can see it.
Anyone who claims these actions are blessed by God has a very ugly god: not the one I serve.
I am not a lawyer, so I don’t know if the Israeli actions listed above meet the legal criteria to be called genocide, ethnic cleansing, or just massive war crimes. However, I have been reading the book of Jeremiah over the last month, and it is clear that modern Israel’s sins definitely meet Jeremiah’s standard for failure to obey God. As I read what the Israeli government and military have been doing, I have been shocked. Their sins seem to be far worse than those that got Jeremiah’s Judah exiled to Babylon.
The main sins of the people in Jehoiachin and Zechariah’s time were breaking the Sabbath, worshipping idols and trusting in military alliances with other nations for their security. They will demand a retrial, if God does not judge the far more serious sins of modern Israel more seriously.
Complicity and Shame
The complicity of western political leaders in the destruction of Gaza is ugly, revealing their moral bankruptcy.
The blanket support of Israel by Christians, particularly in the United States, is disturbing. Thousands of bombs made and paid for by Christian America have been dropped on trapped civilians, but no one cares.
The euphoric and jubilant approval of this destructive violence by Christian leaders is disturbing. A steep price will be paid in increasing hostility to the gospel, particularly in the parts of the world where the deliverance from evil that Jesus died for is so desperately needed.
God's people have become an embarrassment to God.
The dreadful silence of the American internet prophets is distressing, but not unexpected.
What happens spiritually to a nation whose prophets and spiritual leaders spill out hatred and anger, and suck in lies with keen willingness; especially when they don't realise that the hatred and anger is there, because they have been with them for so long that they have become their friend, and the lies have become so comfortable that they seem like the truth.
The shame that has been released is a blot that can never be covered up.
Land Rights
Israel’s claim to the land of Palestine is based on the promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. However, this promise has always been conditional on obedience to the Torah. Failure to comply with the Torah led to exile in Babylon in Jeremiah’s time. The nation of Israel has abrogated its right to the land in the current season by its continued failure to comply with the Torah. The following are just examples
Trust in military power for security. F16s and tanks are the modern equivalents of chariots and horses.
Dependence on a security alliance with another nation (the US) rather than trusting in God.
Different laws/justice for Jews and resident aliens.
Imprisoning people without a fair legal process.
Punishing children for the sins of their fathers.
Destroying houses.
Killing women and children in battle.
Moving ancient boundary lines.
God gave the land of Canaan to Israel, but the gift was conditional on obedience to God. It is not an absolute right. Modern Israel is breaking the Torah requirements in many different ways, so it has abrogated the right it has to the land. Unless something happens to change this situation, the consequences could be nasty.
No Spiritual Protection
An associated problem is that Israel has no protection from the spiritual powers of evil that are attacking it (the Torah only provides limited spiritual protection). When I visited Israel for two weeks in 2010, I used public transport and stayed in the Arab quarter to get a clear sense of the spiritual climate (most Christian visitors spend their time on religious tours or stay in Christian enclaves so they don’t get a true sense of the situation). I was shocked by the prevalence of spirits of anger and hatred wherever we went, mostly amongst the Jewish people we encountered (The Arab people (mostly carried a spirit of fear or despair). The statements of Israeli leaders and the actions of the IDF indicate that these spirits have grown increasingly powerful since then. Control by spirits of anger and hatred, along with a spirit of pride, is causing the Israeli government to make serious mistakes.
By opening their nation up to the spiritual power of evil, the Israeli people seem to be filling up the cup of wrath that they will have to drink. They will experience the consequences of their choices, so I fear for them. This is what happens in a nation that rejects and shuts out the Holy Spirit.
Two Promises
God has made two promises about Israel that have been widely misunderstood.
1. Safety in Exile
After the Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans scattered most of the Jews among the nations. God promised that they would be kept safe there for the entirety of the season called the Times of the Gentiles, but only if they remained scattered (Rev 12:14-16). The consequence of this promise is that the Jews have continued to exist as a unique people for 2000 years.
This promise demonstrated amazing generosity by God, given that his people had rejected Messiah Jesus and the Holy Spirit he sent. This rejection robbed them of the blessings of the Torah, but God promised to protect them despite this rejection.
The corollary of this promise is that if they came together in large groups, they would put themselves at risk. This happened at various times during the history of Europe. It is now happening in the land of Palestine. By coming together in a nation-state in the twentieth century, the Jewish people have put themselves at risk by losing God’s promised protection. The consequence is that they will not be safe in the land of Israel until the Times of the Gentiles are complete.
2. Return from Exile
God has promised that at the end of the Times of the Gentiles, he will bring the people of Israel back to their land. More important, he described how, he would do it. He declared that he would give the children of Israel a new heart and a new spirit (Is 11:11; Jer 31:33-34; Ezek 36:26-27). They would come to know him, love him, and be able to serve him. The Holy Spirit will cause the nations to allow the Israelites to return and help them on their way. The nations will see God doing this when it happens and honour him .
The Zionist movement misunderstood this promise, and tried to force it to happen before the Times of the Gentiles was complete. In the twentieth century, they used political manipulation, military force, alliances with powerful gentile nations, and United Nations regulations to establish a nation-state for themselves (See Woman on the Beast). This forced return from exile did not match the nature and quality of the return that God promised through the prophets. Its ugly character is now being revealed.
Moving ahead of God’s timing is always a serious failure. Presumption got Israel into trouble in the time of Moses.
Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. (Num 14:44-45).
Perhaps this is the experience with the Amalekites that Israel should be remembering.
Dangerous Presumption
A presumptive return from exile creates two serious problems.
The first problem is that it breaks the first promise of God described above. By gathering together in a nation-state, the children of Israel have lost the protection that God promised while they remained scattered amongst the nations. This has left them vulnerable to attack.
More seriously, by establishing a nation using political manipulation, military force and alliances with gentile nations, they abrogated the requirements of the Torah, which is the basis for their right to the land. Losing the right to live in the land leaves them vulnerable to attack from inside and outside. This creates a vicious cycle for Israel that it cannot escape.
Threats of attack come from the Palestinian residents of the land and the surrounding nations.
Israel uses force for security, so it must rely on an alliance with a Gentile nation, the development of nuclear weapons, a powerful air force and tanks. For safety, it also needs a political system that excludes non-Jews from power (a type of apartheid).
Unfortunately, these activities are all forbidden by the Torah, so they remove the blessing it promised.
This loss of blessing increases the insecurity and risk of external attack.
Reliance on political and military power leads to loss of blessings, which leads to greater threats from other peoples, which leads to increased insecurity, which leads to even reliance on greater military and political power. There is no escape from this vicious cycle apart from a merciful rescue by God.
More at Nation of Israel.
The presumptive breach of the first promise raises an important question. Will God still keep the second promise described above? I am sure that God will bring the Jewish people to faith in Jesus when the Times of Gentiles are complete. I am sure that he will give Israel a new spirit and a new heart as he promised. I have always believed that God would bring the children of Israel back to the land of Palestine.
Now, after reading through Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel again, I am not so sure. I am wondering if the presumptive, warring behaviour of the Israeli government will not lead to nasty, destructive wars that result in the promised land being made inhabitable for humans. That would mean God’s promise will have to be fulfilled by a spiritual return.
Self Defence?
Many western politicians are claiming that Israel has a “Right to Self Defence”. Unfortunately, this claim is not true. Israel does not have an absolute right to self-defence against Palestinian attacks.
When a nation uses military power to occupy territory beyond its borders, it does not have a right of self-defence against the people of the territory it has occupied when it uses military power to escape the occupation. When a nation uses military power to establish an economic blockade over a territory beyond its borders, it does not have a right of self-defence against the people of that territory who use military force to break the blockade.
The rights are the other way around. The people whose territory has been occupied have a right to use military force to push the occupying military power out of their territory. Likewise, the people living in the territory that has been subjected to an economic blockade have the right to use military force to break out.
During the Second World War, when Nazi Germany had occupied France, the French Resistance did some fairly nasty stuff to try and push the Germans out of France. Although they sometimes harmed civilians who had collaborated with the German occupiers, no one would suggest that the actions of the French Resistance were illegal. Rather, they are perceived as the heroes of the war. No one would complain that the Germans had a right to self-defence against the attacks of the French Resistance.
The same principle applies to the people of Gaza. They have the right to use military force against the Israeli military forces that initially occupied their territory and have now established an economic blockade around their territory. They are just doing what the French Resistance did to the German Nazis. (In a way, as the quasi-government of Gaza, Hamas would be remiss if it did not use military force to liberate the Palestinian people.
This is what the Palestinians did on 7 October 2023. Gaza militants attacked the Israeli military forces that were enforcing the economic blade on Gaza (Israel is an “occupying power” by its own definition). The Israelis were caught sleeping, and the Palestinian fighters gained control of at least a dozen bases on the border in Israel.
The Hamas fighters took prisoners of war from among the Israeli forces who were seriously defeated in this battle. This is what has happened in most recent wars. It is far better to take prisoners and swap them for other prisoners than to slaughter all the defeated soldiers (as Israel sometimes seems to be doing in Gaza).
A problem with the attack was that many civilians got caught up in the battle, but no one thinks much about why this happened. The reason is that Israel has a practice of building kibbutz or townships close to its military bases near the border. It has done this near Gaza and close to the border with Lebanon and Syria. They do this to provide a more homely place for their military forces to live (but it also turns the civilians into human shields). Placing civilians close to the line of contact in a war zone is irresponsible.
When the Palestinian forces attacked early in the morning, many of the Israeli soldiers enforcing the blockade on Gaza were sleeping in the kibbutz or township where they lived. Therefore, when the Israeli forces were defeated, many soldiers were wearing civilian clothes or nightwear and were not easily identifiable, so many civilians got caught up as prisoners of war with the Israeli soldiers who were defeated (they have all now been released).
The Israeli reaction to the defeat was slow and violent. The majority of the deaths on 7 October were Israeli military personnel. Many of the civilian victims were killed by Israeli helicopters and tanks. This is why it was so difficult to identify the victims. Tank commanders have admitted firing shells into houses occupied by Gazan fighters and civilians. Pilots have admitted that 28 Israeli helicopters were firing 30-millimeter cannon mortars indiscriminately without any intelligence to guide them destroying many cars and houses. The hundreds of burnt-out cars shown on television with occupants burnt beyond recognition were probably hit by these helicopters. The portable weapons carried by the militia from Gaza were not powerful enough to do such terrible damage.
Due to embarrassment, the Israeli government has refused to investigate what really happened on 7 October, so we do not know how many Israeli civilians were killed by panicked Israeli forces, but we can assume it was a large number due to the destructive power of their weapons.
The Israeli rock concert was a disaster. Giving the organisers of a rave a permit to hold a concert within a war zone, a few kilometres from the line of contact is totally stupid. When the Palestinian militia arrived early in the morning, the IDF defenders were still asleep, but unfortunately, the rave was still going. Many would have been members of the IDF or reservists. Quite a few of these would have been armed with pistols. So when the Palestinian fighters unexpectedly encountered the people at the rave, they fought back as they had been trained to do. Many civilians would have been caught in the crossfire and killed. This is sad, but it is part of the fog of war.
To cover up these disasters, the Israeli government has tried to portray the events as a terrorist attack. However, the account above shows that this is misleading.
Terrorism
Christians should avoid the words terrorism and terrorist because their use is usually hypocritical or manipulative. The problem is that terrorism/terrorist is a slippery word that is usually used for propaganda purposes by governments in an attempt to demonise their enemies. It usually refers to a group of people that we want others to hate. The truth is that war always produces terror.
The United States has labelled a number of groups as terrorists, yet none of these groups have killed as many civilians as the United States killed during its reckless invasion of Iraq. It refused to keep a record of civilian casualties to avoid embarrassment, but independent observers have come up with figures between 500,000 and a million Iraqi civilians killed. Isn’t that the real terrorism? And it has not been matched by any so-called terrorist groups that people in the United States are encouraged to hate.
Israel is trying to use the “terrorism” word to justify their defensive shambles on 7 October, but I doubt that they will get away with it. Newspapers in Israel are now reporting on the inadequacies of the Israeli response, so I suspect that the truth will eventually come out.
The action on 7 October was not a terrorist act but a cleverly executed military attack by an oppressed people on their oppressors. The real terrorising in this region has been done by the Israeli defence forces. The worst terror has been created by bombing the so-called safe areas that the Israelis insisted that Gazans should flee to.
Having lived amidst peace and plenty all my life I don't have the right to judge the people of Gaza,
because I don't know what I would have become if my grandparents had been herded off their land into a refugee camp,
if bombs had fallen on my hometown on three different occasions during my lifetime,
if friends marching in a peaceful protest had been kneecapped by Israeli snipers,
if my economy had been shut behind a blockade for sixteen years, so there is very little prospect of escaping unemployment,
if electricity supply was intermittent,
if water was scarce throughout my childhood,
and sewage sometimes flowed on the street.
if the supply of food was limited so that most children are malnourished.
I assume that some of my family and friends would choose to fight back.
I presume that God sees the people of Gaza as oppressed and downtrodden (Is 1:17; 58:6,10; Ezek 22:29; Mic 2:1-2) without the power to resist their oppressors.
Bullying Servant
Being bullied and persecuted does not give a nation an absolute defence against accusations of bullying. Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant explains this.
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed (Matt 18:23-34).
The parable shows that people do not always learn from their own experiences in their treatment of others. Those who are bullied often go on to bully others.
The Jewish people received terrible treatment under the Nazi regime in Germany. They were imprisoned and powerless in lands where they were unwanted, but now the boot is on the other foot and Israel is the strongest military power in their part of the Middle East.
The Jews have been aliens in the world for many centuries. Their treatment in many parts of the world was absolutely terrible. They should understand better than anyone what it is like to be a refugee. Given this experience, they could be expected to have empathy for the Palestinian people. Instead, they have done everything possible to make life difficult for them.
When the Jewish people escaped from Europe, they resolved never to again be in a situation where they could be bullied. However, to get that place they have had to become bullies. They have escaped from tyranny, but they are now behaving like tyrants. They have transformed from victim to bully in two generations.
Doublespeak
I get really upset by the twisting of words and doublespeak that goes on with respect to Israel. I am especially concerned that Christians have fallen for this propaganda trick. We are supposed to be people of the truth. We have the Spirit of Truth. So when Christians are deceived by twisted words and doublespeak, something is wrong. I get really concerned when Christians demonstrate double standards in assessing the behaviour of other nations. The following are some examples of double standards and twisting of words.
Various word games are played to equivalise the actions of the oppressor and the oppressed. When the oppressed people fight back against their oppressors, they are called “terrorists”. When the oppressor bombs the oppressed and kills thousands of civilians, it is called “self-defence”. The reality is that oppressor nations always cause far more terror than the population of the people that they are oppressing. They have to use excessive force to keep control.
Israelis captured by Hama are called “hostages” even though they were soldiers controlling the observation cameras and automated machine-gun posts that enforce the blockade on Gaza (all the civilians have been freed). In contrast, the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, many without trial, are called “prisoners” or “terrorists”. Those who have had a trial appear in military tribunals (because Israel is an occupying power) in which normal rules of justice do not apply. Some have been tortured. These are the real hostages.
The settlers on the West Bank of Palestine are angry, ruthless and violent. They are using violent force to push Palestinians out of the territory that they want to control. The IDF stands by and protects them as they destroy homes and harass people going about their daily lives. Several villages have been ethnically cleansed. These settlers are the real terrorists in Palestine.
Statements made by Israeli government leaders and officials tend to be accepted as true by mainstream news media, even though they have been caught lying on numerous occasions. When Israeli claims are refuted by independent investigations, the media don’t retract their statements, they just pretend it has not happened. In contrast, statements from Hamas are usually assumed to be false. When the media report on the announcements of the Hamas Health Authority about the numbers of deaths and casualties in Gaza, they discount them as being exaggerated.
Israel is allowed to maintain powerful military forces to defend itself (and control Gaza), whereas the Palestinian people of Gaza are condemned if they have any weapons at all. Why are they not allowed to defend themselves?
When the United States supplies bombs to Israel that are used to smash infrastructure and kill civilians, it is just a Christian nation doing what it should do. If Iran supplies weapons to Hezbollah, which emerged to defend the Shia population of southern Lebanon after they were invaded and brutalised several times by Israeli forces, it is portrayed as evil.
When Israeli troops disguise themselves as doctors and nurses and enter a hospital, forcing out the medical staff and killing young men who were receiving medical attention (one who was unconscious was shot in the forehead in cold blood), the Christian world just yawns. If Hamas had taken this action, the entire world would be screaming about the evil murderers.
The way that Israeli propaganda techniques work is to make outrageous claims, knowing that by the time the lies are debunked, most people will believe that they are true and will not change their minds. This strategy works, because in the West, there is a bias towards believing the claims of the Israelis and a reluctance to believe the claims of Palestinians. For example, Joe Biden claims that he had seen photos of Israeli babies beheaded by Hama. A leading newspaper has debunked his claims, proving that the photos never existed and the event never occurred. However, most of the news media never correct their accounts, so many people in the West continue to believe that what he said was true. Similarly, the Israeli defence minister had to walk back his claims about mass rape because he had no evidence, but most western media ignored his retraction.
Israel claimed that Hama had headquarters in a tunnel under hospitals, but never produced any evidence to prove their claims. All they produced was a photo of an old tunnel that was not currently being used. Even the New York Times has admitted the Israeli claims were false, but most media never retracted them, so most people continue to believe that they are true.
Worse still, these false claims are often used as justification for terrible destructive violence. However, even if Hamas did have headquarters in tunnels under a hospital, the solution is to send troops into the tunnel and clear Hama out. It would not justify forcing the medical staff and sick people to leave the hospital, leaving adults on life-support and babies in incubators to die. Nor would it justify destroying the hospital with bombs. That this is widely accepted as justification for destroying hospitals and killing over 400 doctors and nurses shows how warped Western moral thinking has become. Even German Nazis generally protected doctors and nurses, and their medical facilities.
Many Christians believe that the nations around Israel want to invade Israel and destroy it. That was probably true fifty years ago, but the situation has changed significantly since then. Israel now has the most powerful army and air force in the Middle East. It has nearly 200 nuclear weapons. The surrounding Middle Eastern nations realised that driving the Israelis out of the land is impossible, even if they all worked together. These nations seem to have accepted this reality and seem to be resigned to Israel’s existence. Many of them have negotiated peace treaties with Israel. I don’t see efforts to “take Israel out”, whereas the International Court of Justice found plenty of evidence of serious efforts to take the Palestinians out. Hostility to Israel will only increase if it persists with an apartheid-type, exclusively Jewish state, as it has been doing, and if it continues with ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank.
Israelis employed in various NGOs continue to train with the military reserves each week, and will serve with the IDF if they are required. On the other hand, if Palestinians work for a UN organisation (it is difficult to get employment in Gaza) and work with the Palestinian resistance in their spare time, there is outrage. This is a clear double standard.
When a nation invades and occupies territory beyond its borders, it is required by international law to provide food, shelter, health care and education for people in the occupied territory. Israel has always refused to do this and demanded that other nations support the people in the territory that it has occupied. Providing this humanitarian support was the reason that UNWRA was set up. So when Israel tries to get UNWRA defunded, it is trying to destroy the organisation that is doing what it should be doing itself. Defunding UNWRA would ultimately result in the starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza, because Israel will continue to refuse to provide humanitarian support to the occupied peoples as required by international law.
Jesus said that the devil was a liar right from the start.
He is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
Therefore, it is not surprising that the people of the world believe lies. But it is worrying when followers of Jesus succumb to lies, half-truths and double standards.
How will this End?
My thoughts on the long-term outcome of the current struggle in Israel and Gaza are as follows.
• Israel’s attempt to eliminate Hamas is failing, because it is impossible to eliminate an ideology. The IDF has taken serious casualties and has failed to release any of its captured soldiers. After fighting for three months, Israel is no closer to its goal.
• International pressure against Israel is increasing. When the International Court of Justice receives a report from Israel on the implementation of its order in about three weeks, the court will probably find that Israel has continued to breach them. That will increase the pressure.
• Pressure from the United States will get stronger, as the presidential election gets closer. At some point, Israel will have to agree to a ceasefire that will bring the current conflict to an end.
• Palestinian support for Hama will continue to increase. As Jonathon Cook explained,
Most of the Palestinian children now being bombed and terrorised, made homeless along with their families, and witnessing loved ones being killed will not grow up over the next few years to become young peace ambassadors. Their birthright will be the gun and the rocket. Their ambition will be to avenge their families and restore their honour.
The current massacre has massively increased the popularity of Hamas, both in Gaza and the West Bank.
• I am not sure if they are arrogant enough to try it, but Israel is likely to double down and attack Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hezbollah. This is likely to end badly, because Hezbollah has a more powerful military than Hamas. The IDF might be forced to retreat from the Golan Heights and parts of northern Israel.
• Zionism has a serious problem, because its goal is a Jewish state between the Jordan River and the Sea. Any Jew from anywhere in the world is entitled to be a citizen of this state. Unfortunately, for this goal to be accomplished, the non-Jewish people living within this region must be either excluded from the area, or made subservient to the Jewish people. If the majority of people in the region are not Jewish, then democracy will have to be given up. However, in the modern world, an exclusively Jewish state will be seen as a form of apartheid that is unacceptable, so international pressure for change will increase.
• Zionism is a political problem, so it needs a political solution. Political problems can’t be solved by military power. Occupation of problem territory is never a workable solution. The current Zionist military strategy cannot succeed. Israel can never be secure without God’s blessing, and it can't get God’s blessing while ignoring the requirements of the Torah for the treatment of aliens within the land.
You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt (Deuth 10:19).
Do not deny justice to a resident alien or fatherless child (Deut 24:17).The same law and the same ordinance will apply to both you and the alien who resides with you (Num 15:16).
You are to have the same law for the resident alien and the native, because I am the LORD your God (Lev 24:22).
You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God (Lev 19:33).
The same law will apply to both the native and the alien who resides among you (Ex 12:49).
You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him (Ex 22:21).
You must not oppress a resident alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident alien because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt (Ex 23:9).
Unfortunately, rejecting the requirements of the Torah leads to military defeat and eventually to exile (Deut 28:15-68).
If you don’t keep all the words of this instruction that are written in this document by acting on them, so as to live in awe of this honoured and awe-inspiring name, Yahweh your God. Yahweh will bring extraordinary calamities on you and calamities on your offspring, big and lasting calamities (Deut 28:58-59 First Testament).
• Opinion polls show that the population of Israel has become increasingly violent and hostile to the Palestinian people. Pressure to expel the inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank will increase over time. Israeli governments are becoming increasingly right-wing, ruthless and violent, and there is no sign of that changing. This will exacerbate as pressure from the international community increases.
• At some point, Israel will have another go at expelling the inhabitants of Gaza, and next time, it might be more successful. It will continue to expand the settlements on the West Bank and make life difficult for the Palestinian people who live there. Israeli politicians who do not support these objectives will lose popularity.
• Israel’s behaviour is not going to get better soon. It is likely to become far worse as time goes by. Christians who have hitched their horse to the Israeli wagon are going to become more and more embarrassed as time goes on.
• From studying the prophetic scriptures, I believe that at some point, the people of the United States will get fed up with the unruly behaviour of successive Israeli governments. A US President will be forced to invade Israel in an attempt to reduce the scale of atrocities that are occurring. The Israeli government will find itself subordinate to the nation that it has relied on for support. This will be the end of the Zionist dream (See Woman on the Beast).
• God’s long-term goal is to bring all Israel to faith in Jesus.
A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved (Rom 11:25-26).
I have explained how this will happen in Israel’s Blessing. This event will bring great blessing to the world and allow the Kingdom of God to come to fullness.
Israel’s return to blessing will come when the season called the Times of the Gentiles is complete. The transition to a new system will be marked by a Time of Distress on earth. This will be a time of great trouble for the nation of Israel, sometimes called Jacob’s Trouble.
How awful that day will be! There will be no other like it!
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.
On that day—this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies—
I will break his yoke from your neck and tear off your chains,
and strangers will never again enslave him.
They will serve the LORD their God (Jer 30:7-9).