Prophetically Discerning the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Those who were watching closely when President Trump spoke in Israel may have noticed that he dated the Arab/Israeli conflict:

We know, for instance, that both Israelis and Palestinians seek lives of hope for their children. And we know that peace is possible if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past and commit together to finally resolving this crisis, which has dragged on for nearly half a century or more.

What happened a half century, 50 years, ago? Israel won the Six-Day War, taking control of the Old City of Jerusalem. By saying this, President Trump’s speechwriters were clearly saying that the source of the conflict is Israel’s occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and not Arab intolerance of the Jewish nation.

This is straight out of the fictitious, Arab version of the conflict. The Saudis have been saying for years, “Go back to the 1967 borders, and we will make peace.” But this was not the Saudi position before 1967, when it sought Israel’s destruction. Abbas told Trump during his visit to the once-Jewish city of Bethlehem:

Our fundamental problem is with the occupation and settlements … The problem is not between us and Judaism. It’s between us and occupation.

Let’s Check History

If that were true, then the Palestinian Liberation Organization would have been created in 1967 or after. Before 1967, Israel did not occupy the West Bank or Gaza. However, the PLO, the organization that Mahmoud Abbas leads, was created in 1964—three years before Israel won Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the entire Sinai Desert.

It was the Arab league, a group of 22 Arab states (13 at the time), who created the PLO when Israel’s width was a mere nine miles in some places. That includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and others.

Okay, follow me here: 53 years ago, before Jerusalem was restored to Israel, the entire Arab world birthed a movement dedicated to the Liberation of Palestine. Are you tracking with me? This means that the Palestine they wanted to liberate was not East Jerusalem or the West Bank—as they were not in Israel’s hands at that time. They wanted to kill every Jew in Israel and fill the Mediterranean with their blood.

Gamal Nasser shared, via Cairo radio on May 16, 1967, the Arab’s aim for the Jews:

The existence of Israel has continued too long. We welcome the Israeli aggression. We welcome the battle we have long awaited. The peak hour has come. The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel.

If you still have doubts, how about this one from the Cairo Radio’s Voice of the Arabs broadcast:

The Zionist barrack in Palestine is about to collapse and be destroyed. Every one of the 100 million Arabs has been living for the past 19 years on one hope—to live to see the day Israel is liquidated … There is no life, no peace nor hope for the gangs of Zionism to remain in the occupied land.

As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel … The sole method we shall apply against Israel is a total war which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.

Notice the use of the words “occupied land.” If the conflict only began after Israel won the Six-Day War and the occupation refers only to the West Bank and Gaza, what are they talking about before Israel had the West Bank and Gaza? Clearly the goal, as stated, is to destroy Israel completely, including Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Need more proof?

“Brethren and sons, this is the day of the battle to avenge our martyred brethren who fell in 1948. It is the day to wash away the stigma. We shall, God willing, meet in Tel Aviv and Haifa.”—Radio broadcast by Iraqi President Abdel Rahman Aref.

Now, what does God say? Through the prophet Amos He declares:

” will plant them upon their land, 
   and no more will they be uprooted
   out of their land which I have given them.
   The Lord your God has spoken” (Amos 9:15).

When Abbas tells President Trump that his only issue is the occupation, he is not referring to Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War, but rather to Israel’s victory in the 1948 War of Independence, 69 years ago. Again, Abbas is the president of the PLO, created to destroy Israel before Israel ever took control of the so called occupied territory.

Politicians!

So the concern I have for President Trump, the politician, is that he has many advisers, such as Secretary of State Tillerson and National Security Adviser McMaster, advising him to seek a comprehensive peace deal between the Arabs and Israelis, which will no doubt go against the Word of God. God says He “planted Israel in their own land.” I can only assume they are advising him to use the embassy as a chip and will seek to get something from Israel in exchange for moving the embassy. Already they have called on Israel to transfer more land to the Palestinians in exchange for exactly nothing. This is dangerous.

We need to be praying for President Trump, praying that he has a divine visitation from God regarding Israel and that he is not influenced by well-meaning politicians who think there is a political solution to this spiritual battle. President Truman had to stand alone against the most powerful secretary of state in U.S. history, George Marshall, when he was the first head of state in order to recognize the new state of Israel. May President Trump find similar courage.

Silver Lining

While Trump did say that the conflict was 50 years old, he added two words that were not in his prepared notes. He said, “this crisis, which has dragged on for nearly half a century or more.”

It was a small gesture, as any student of history knows, that the Arab aggression against the Jews returning to Zion goes back nearly 100 years. It was 70 years ago that five Arab nations sought to annihilate Israel in the first few days of her existence. But it did show that President Trump was not unaware of what he was reading.

As believers we need to pray for the president, whom I believe is called to recognize Jerusalem, despite internal and external pressures, and, also, we need to let our voices be heard. Remember, this is a democracy and, if you are American, you have a role to play.

Nothing New

Other than Trump’s historic visit to the Western Wall and the love he is showing for Israel, there hasn’t been a huge difference policy-wise from presidents before him.

• He still thinks the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the key to Middle East peace, whereas it is clearly Arab aggression going back 100 years and now, radical Islam. If the Arabs had accepted a peace deal with Israel in 1948, we would not have the conflict we have today.
• He wants Israel to give up land for a so-called peace.
• He is pushing for a two-state solution which will most definitely lead to another Islamic terror state like the Iran he so despises, but on Israel’s border.
• Like Bush and Clinton, he has made promises regarding the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving of the embassy and not yet fulfilled them.

The key is prayer. There are spiritual forces at work here.

“For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). {eoa}

Ron Cantor is the director of Messiah’s Mandate International in Israel, a Messianic ministry dedicated to taking the message of Jesus from Israel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Cantor also travels internationally teaching on the Jewish roots of the New Testament. He serves on the pastoral team of Tiferet Yeshua, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Tel Aviv. Follow him at @RonSCantor on Twitter.

This article originally appeared at messiahsmandate.org.