May 2012

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:17:37 +0000

The true guardians of Jerusalem

Remembering General Edmund Allenby’s entry into the Holy City

There was an old Arab saying, “When the Nile flows into Palestine, then shall the Prophet from the West drive the Turks from Jerusalem.” Except for a short eight-year period in the early 19th century, when the Egyptians conquered and briefly held Jerusalem, the city was subject to the iron rule of the Ottoman Turks for over four hundred years. Christians and Jews, but especially Jews, suffered under Muslim religious demands that non-believers were to be dhimmis─second-class to Islamic believers. The words of the old Arab saying came “miraculously” true in early December 1917. It was the first day of the Jewish festival of freedom─Hanukkah. British General Edmund Allenby led a British army of Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims which had crossed the Sinai desert from Egypt and liberated Jerusalem. For the first time in seven hundred years, Jerusalem was under Christian Control.

But didn’t the old Arab proverb say the waters of the Nile would flow into Palestine? Geographically, it is impossible

for the Nile River to cross hundreds of miles. Napoleon had long recognized that an army travels on its stomach. The British concluded that an army travels on water. They needed water to fight across the Sinai into Palestine and to take Jerusalem. The British did what no one had done before. They built a water pipeline, which carried the waters of the Nile to their army as it made its way into Palestine!

Yet there was a second part of the saying…”then shall the Prophet from the West drive the Turks from Jerusalem.” The British Expeditionary force came from the West. In Arabic, the word for “prophet” is al-nebi. General Allenby led the army that captured Jerusalem. Coincidence? Perhaps…With the fall of Beersheva to Allenby, the retreating Turks made a few efforts to delay the advancing British forces near Jerusalem. They retreated from the Holy City without a fight, making series of plans that were reminiscent of the German plans to blow up Paris when they were retreating at the end of World War II.

On December 11, 1917, General Edmund Allenby (in the middle) entered Jerusalem on foot out of respect for the Holy City.

Turkish forces beat a hasty retreat from Jerusalem, surrendering to the 2/19th Battalion, London Regiment on early morning of December 9, 1917. Two days later, in a formal display of surrender for the cameras and for history, Allenby marched into Jerusalem. Proclaiming the city liberated, he stood on the ramparts of Kind David’s Tower, across the street from the entrance to Christ Church. The Jewish Legion under their Christian commander fought and died to liberate Palestine from the Turks, and for the land that may be included in a future Palestinian state today.

Allenby turned control of the Haram el-Sharif (Temple Mount) over to the Waqf─the Muslim trustees. After the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israeli government also handed control of the Temple Mount over to the Muslim Waqf in the manner General Allenby had done sixty years earlier.

The deeds of the al-Husseini family

The al-Husseinis did not vanish from Jerusalem’s history with the surrender of the city. In 1929, to manipulate the Arab street for political reasons, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin al-Husseini, the British-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem spread false rumors that Jews were assaulting the Haram el-Sharif (Temple Mount). While the British held back, Muslims rioted, killing Jews. Also, in Hebron, a vicious massacre of 67 defenseless Jews took place in 1929.

Again in the mid-1930s al-Husseini once more instigated rioting against the Jews and the British. A familiar call was heard: “The Jews are attacking the Haram el-Sharif (Temple Mount).” This time, the British wanted him as a criminal. He fled to Nazi Germany for protection, becoming a mouthpiece for Nazi propaganda against the Jews and the Allied Powers. With Germany’s defeat, al-Husseini escaped to Syria, where he lived safely until his death in 1974.

Over the years the Muslim street has repeatedly been fed false alarms for political reasons about the Jews attacking the Haram al-Sharif, the ancient site of the Jewish temples.

The 1996 riots were caused by lies and rumor about Jews excavating under the Mosque’s platform when the Western Wall Tunnel (Rabbi’s Tunnel) was extended to allow visitors to exit to Via Dolorosa instead of having to turn back. The Netanyahu Government approved the project that cleared the tunnel extension along the Wall, not under the Mosque platform. Over 80 people died in these Arab riots following the opening of the completed tunnel.

The forgotten Christians of the East

It is not clear what either Western governments or churches think they are achieving by turning a blind eye to the perse-cution and decimation of Christian communities in the Muslim world. As the Church burning in Egypt and other attacks by Muslims against Christians throughout the region show, their behavior is not appeasing anyone. What is clear enough is that they shall reap what they sow.

Just as the Jews of the Islamic world were forcibly removed from their ancient communities by the Arab rulers upon the establishment of Israel in 1948, so Christians today have been persecuted and driven out of their homes. Islamic and Arab regimes have used Islamic religious supremacy and Arab racial chauvinism against Christians as rallying cries. These calls have in turn led to the decimation of the Christian populations in the Arab and Islamic world.

As for the Vatican, in his 2007 speech Pope Benedict XVI laid down the gauntlet at his speech in Regensburg and challenged the Muslim world to act with reason and tolerance when dealing with other religions. Now the Vatican has abandoned this principled stand. A true discourse of equals has been replaced by supplication to Islam in the name of ecumenical understanding. Last year the Pope hosted a Synod of Christians in the Middle East that made no mention of the persecution of Christians by Islamic regimes. Instead, Israel was singled out for criticism. Therefor, it is not a surprice that the Vatican has actually embraced leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe and the Middle East.

(Based on Caroline B. Glick’s article The forgotten Christians of the East, November 2011. Photo by CFI-USA.)

(Based on Jerry Klinger’s article The true guadians of Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, November 2011. Photos on Page 1: General Allenby by Wikipedia, Yaffa Gate by CFI-USA)

Praying for the sake of the Jewish heritage

Unwavering support to Israel

On April 3, Christian supporters of Israel gathered at the Knesset for the fourth Jerusalem Assembly, an event hosted by the Parliament’s Christian Allies Caucus. The Jerusalem assembly was inaugurated in 2007. It is an umbrella group dedicated to advancing and enhancing Christian-Israeli understanding, communication and solidarity.

Church leaders represented tens of thousands of churches and hundreds of millions of Christians from around the world. Arye Eldad from the National Union Party addressed the gathering, saying that, “The entire world wants two states for two people and to end the occupation. I am in favor of ending the Muslim occupation that began in the seventh century [A.D.] and establishing a Palestinian state in Jordan.” Eldad believes that with the Arab Spring revolution threatening the current ruling regime in Jordan, it is only a matter of time before the Palestinian majority takes over and that Jordan “will become the Palestinian state it already is.”

Pray that Christian supporters of Israel will stand strong and munited for the Biblical rights of the State of Israel.

Palestinian identity crises

In a televised address on Al-Hekma TV at the end of March, Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security, Fathi Hammad, stated, “Every Palestinian, in Gaza and throughout Palestine, can prove his Arab roots, whether from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, or anywhere [else]. We have blood ties… Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis,” exclaimed the Hamas minister.

“Those pushing for a Palestinian state try to paint the Palestinian Arabs as somehow distinct from the Arabs roundabout, and therefore in need for their own state. Not so,” said Hammad. His remarks were undoubtedly never intended for a Western audience!

Pray that the world leaders who currently are working to ensure the establishment of a “Palestinian state” will bind by the international laws that facilitated the establishment of the state of Israel.

The Jewish response

French rabbis called for building more schools, synagogues and other Jewish institutions as a response to the shocking killing of three Jewish children and a rabbi in Toulouse in March. The attack took place at the Ozar HaTorah School, one of twenty such schools in France with roots in the diaspora of Middle Eastern Jewry. “This attack is an attack on the whole Jewish community. There are people who want to scare the Jewish community into submission, our response will be to show them that we will not be bowed, the opposite is true,” said Rabbi Aryeh Goldberg, Deputy Director of the Rabbinical Center of Europe.

Intercede for European Jews, especially in France, that they would know the time and the season to return to their ancestral home in Israel.

Missile slams into Eilat

Eilat, a popular southern Israeli tourist resort was hit by a rocket attack on the first week of April. The Red Sea destination scheduled to host the 2012 European Triathlon Championships later in April, was already on high alert because of the Jewish Passover holiday. No-one was hurt in the attack, with police believing the missile was launched by Islamic militants from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Many overseas tourists were in the area, and more than 4,000 athletes were expected for the grueling cycle-swim-run event that starts on April 19. It was the first rocket attack on Israel from Egypt since the collapse of the regime of Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago. That incident suggested that Egypt’s political upheaval and the resulting power vacuum allowed Gaza militants with allies in Sinai to open a new front against Israel on its long-quiet frontier with Egypt. Israeli officials say that weak policing and difficult terrain may be turning the peninsula into the latest focus of Islamic militant activity in the region.

Pray for the protection of Israel’s borders so that no weapon that is formed against the nation shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17).

May Project: Judean Jewish Communities

Security is our basic need

For years we have visited and followed the development of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. With much work, sacrifice and help from friends like you, ancient Israeli sites now house beautifully built homes, well attended fields and orchards that grow a variety of grains, fruit, vegetables, and produce wine and flowers for worldwide export.

Many of the Jewish communities have unfriendly Muslim neighbors. The entrance gate is usually manned by an armed guard about sixteen hours a day, but the unmanned hours demand better control and supervision. Security cameras can serve as additional vigilant eyes and can monitor activity, even identify cars’ license numbers from a distance.

Communities also need their Emergency Rapid Response Teams that are made up of volunteers. In cases of security emergencies, they are called from homes, sometimes in the middle of the night, or interrupted at work. Working in cooperation with the army, these volunteers are constantly ready to respond to any community emergency. In order for teams to be properly outfitted, additional equipment─such as walkie-talkies and silent two-way radios─is needed to ensure reliable communication during emergencies. (Reference to Community of the Month, Sondra Oster Baras-CFOIC.)

Bullet-proof vests, helmets, weapons and sophisticated security surveillance systems are necessary in every Jewish community. The Fogel family attack in Itamar shocked Israel and much of the world in March 2011. Itamar’s spokesman said that two Arabs entered the community through an area at the edge of the community that was not covered by security cameras. Itamar has since then secured every inch of the community. In small, isolated communities in Judea and Samaria, keeping rescue teams funded and equipped is critically important. Come and help communities grow and provide security with the technology and manpower that make it possible. In June, we will visit Hebron and other Judean communities. Should you like to donate for this purpose, designate your gift for “Security of Jewish Communities.”

April 2012

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:19:10 +0000

Rejecting God’s Covenant with the Jewish people

Replacement Theology from “Bethlehem, Palestine”

This article does not necessarily represent the views of CFI−USA
Board or staff. It is published for information purposes only.

A new brand of political replacement theology built atop Jesus’ teachings of compassion, and attacking those who support the State of Israel on Biblical grounds, is locally known as Palestinian Liberation Theology. The movement had a major boost in 2010 with the release of the docu-mentary film “With God on Our Side,” which presented a critical view of Christian Zionism and featured the first Christ at the Checkpoint Conference in Bethlehem. The conference attempted to equate Jesus’s suffering with Israeli “mistreatment” of the Palestinian Arabs.The second Conference at the Bethlehem Bible College, that took place this year from March 5−9, further advanced the cause. This time Israelis paid attention, many of them confused over how a part of an Evangelical Church that had so vigorously supported their nations’ prophetic restoration is now championing for its de-legitimization.
Historically anti-Jewish sentiments are not restricted to just one particular point in time or ideology, but can find expression in Islam as well as in radical Christian Replacement Theology. We often focus on the Islamic threat to Israel which is the driving force of Jew-hatred in the Middle East. At the same time we have to acknowledge that it was not Islam that catapulted Hitler into power, but rather a Christian Replacement Theology which had severed the link between the Old and New Testaments and had rejected God’s covenant with the Jewish people.

The current Christian Replacement Theology seeks a common cause with other enemies of Israel, such as left-wing Christian groups and the Arab League. It is not a surprise that several Middle East Arab nations and Islamic groups reject the Jewish history of Israel, especially of Jerusalem, or that they seek to make Al Quds (Jerusalem) into an exclusively Arab and Muslim city.

When East Jerusalem was under Jordanian rule, all Jews were forbidden to worship at their holy places, whereas all faiths can worship freely now that Jerusalem is under Jewish rule.

As mentioned, Christian Zionism is a theological viewpoint which supports modern Israel’s continued prophetic relevance and destiny, and, in so doing, also supports Israel’s Biblical claim to the Land of Israel. By contrast, the Palestinian Liberation Theology claims that its position is apolitical and Biblical. With assistance from abroad (representing some of America’s largest churches), this movement supports the Palestinian struggle for freedom in their “occupied land.”

This year the conference was called as a “Christian conference of hope and reconciliation.” It is interesting to see that the conference information did not mention anything about Palestinian Christians being reconciled with their Arab Muslim brothers in Bethlehem or anywhere else in the region. In the past, the Christian population was an 80 percent majority in Bethlehem. Today, it is estimated to be only 15 percent. Israel is the only exception in the Middle East where the Christian population has dramatically increased in the recent years─mainly due to immigration.

The security wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem was Christ at the Check-Point Conference’s “symbol.” Israel reluctantly built it ten years ago in response to terrorist attacks against Jerusalem. Palestinians have never accepted any responsibility for those attacks nor condemned them.

Palestinian Theology attempts to liberate God from the Old Testament

The PLT grew out of the Marxist Liberation Theology movement popularized in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. They emphasized oppression of the poor and encouraged political activism to abolish perpetual class struggle. In this movement the Bible was reduced to nothing more than stories about the poor and the persecuted.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the failure of Marxist revolutionary movements in Latin America, Liberation Theology lost most of its justification and influence. The premise did appeal to Palestinians because of its favor for the underdog and its potential to de-Zionize the Old Testament. It is no secret that Israel’s founding ignited a theological crisis in the Palestinian Christian community. The Abrahamic Covenants and Old Testament prophecies justified Israel’s national rebirth. According to Naim Ateek, the Torah was seen as a “Zionist text” and became “repugnant” to Palestinians. Palestinian Christians needed a new theology that would, in Ateek’s words, “liberate God from the Old Testament.”

Ateek revived Liberation Theology and related it to the Israeli-Palestinian situation. He switched focus from liberating the economically poor to the politically oppressed. The Sabeel Center has been used to develop and implement this theology.

A central tenet of PLT is that the Bible cannot be taken literally, and it needs continuous interpretation to ensure every passage matches PLTs notion of God. Most of the Torah, including Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings, is thrown out. In fact, according to Ateek, only the prophetic books of the Old Testament are accepted as Scripture, for they alone present a “true mature vision of God.”

Replacement Theology teaches that the Church superseded Jews as the benefactors of God’s covenants. PLT goes one step further, saying that the Jews never had a place of God’s favor in the first place. In some cases, they erase Israel from the Bible altogether. Many Palestinian Churches teach that PLT has changed the Psalms by removing every reference to “Israel” and “Zion.”

Palestinians are also inserted into Biblical narratives in the place of Israel. These narratives are read metaphorically where Israel assumes the role of the oppressor. The centerpiece of PLT teaching is the story of Exodus, where Palestinians replace the Hebrews and Israel is represented as the obstinate Pharaoh who refuses to grant them freedom and a state of their own. Mitri Raheb, a PLT theologian, stated that, “if the Exodus is the story of any people, [then] it is actually the story of us, Palestinians.”

From Ateek’s perspective, the Israeli “occupation” is the root of all evil. He makes no apology for Palestinian terrorism or its contribution toward the plight of Palestinian Christians. There is no recognition that Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist government, is a far greater threat to Palestinian Christians than Zionism. The Sabeel Center enjoys an active support of many of the mainline liberal denominations around the globe. These church groups ignore the danger of Sabeel’s theology that undermines Israel’s right to exist and right to the land. (This article is published for information only. It does not represent the views of the Board or staff of CFI-USA. References: FrontPageMagazine.com, Israel Today, Tomas Sandel−ECI and Christ at the Checkpoint conference flyer.)

Defending Jewish lives and securing Israel’s future

Benjamin Netanyahu: Never Again

On March 5, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the delegates at the AIPAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Following are excerpts from the speech published by The Times of Israel, March 6:

“Responsible leaders should not bet the security of their countries on the belief that the world’s most dangerous regimes won’t use the world’s most dangerous weapons. And I promise you that as Prime Minister, I will never gamble with the security of the State of Israel.

I appreciate President Obama’s recent efforts to impose even tougher sanctions against Iran. These sanctions are hurting Iran’s economy, but unfortunately, Iran’s nuclear program continues to march forward. Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue. We have waited for diplomacy to work. We have waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer. As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.
Today we have a state of our own. And the purpose of the Jewish state is to defend Jewish lives and to secure the Jewish future. Never again will we not be masters of the fate of our very survival. Never again. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat. We deeply appreciate the great alliance between our two countries. But when it comes to Israel’s survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate.

Israel’s fate is to continue to be the forward position of freedom in the Middle East. The only place in the Middle East where minorities enjoy full civil rights; the only place in the Middle East where Arabs enjoy full civil rights; the only place in the Middle East where Christians are free to practice their faith; the only place in the Middle East where real judges protect the rule of law. And as Prime Minister of Israel, I will always protect Israel’s democracy─always.

Standing always by Israel

“The U.S. Congress will always stand by Israel, and the U.S. Congress will never allow Israel to stand alone,” House Speaker John Boehner said on March 6, standing alongside PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the House leadership from both parties. “The looming threat of a nuclear Iran cannot be ignored,” he said, warning that “ambiguity could lead to serious miscalculations, which is what we collectively hope to avoid.” Boehner said that, “Now is the time to stand together, and we are here today to tell the prime minister that Congress intends to do so.”

In his address to the Congress, PM Netanyahu stated that America has global interests, while Israel is “on the ground and more vulnerable,” referring to Iran, and that this made for a very different perspective. Citing historical precedents in which the U.S. and Israel did not see eye-to-eye, Netanyahu noted that David Ben-Gurion declared independence against the advice of the U.S.; Levi Eshkol launched a pre-emptive strike in 1967 against Washington’s counsel; and Menachem Begin decided to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 despite U.S. opposition. At the closing of his address, Netanyahu thanked the congressional leaders for their support and said that, “I go back to Israel feeling that we have great friends in Washington.” (Reference to www.jpost.com)

Please pray for:

Israel’s friends not to desert her at this time
Wisdom and discernment for the Israeli government
to make the right decisions concerning Iran
Protection and strength for the Prime Minister
The Church to awaken to watch and pray
Truth to emerge in our secular learning institutions concerning Israel and Zionism.
Israel to become the light to the nations, as it will be.

He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And never again will they train for war (Micah 4:3, NAS).