Trading Land for Peace and Riots

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from WorldNetDaily, March 18,2005, with the headline: “Thousands Protest—Jerusalem: Tens of thousands rallied yesterday in a Gaza settlement to mark the conclusion of a special worldwide fast to protest the planned withdrawal of Jewish residents from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Two of Israel’s leading rabbis, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Avraham Shapiro, and former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu, declared a day of public fasting from sunset Wednesday to sunset last night in hopes of altering Israel’s decision to vacate Jewish settlements they worry will be used by Palestinian terrorists to stage attacks against Israel.

“Emily Amrusi, a spokesman woman for the Yesha Settlers Council explained yesterday was chosen to hold the fast because it coincides with a day of the Jewish calendar on which Moses, who commanded the Jewish nation to settle the land of Israel, is believed to have died.

“Meanwhile, Israel’s Rabbinical Council for Peace, a group of some of the most prominent Jewish Rabbinic leaders, have issued a statement asking world Jewry to ‘open your eyes and see what the government of Israel is planning to do. Jewish communities that are more than three decades old will be destroyed. Torah centers and Yeshivas will be torn down. Cemeteries, where terror victims lie, will be given over to the very hands who slew them. Parents and grandparents, young children and flowering youth will be driven from their homes. Business and corporations employing thousands will be closed, and most of all, a victory for terror will be granted. Our enemies will celebrate in the streets and be encouraged to further acts of violence. Jews throughout the land of Israel will be endangered when the bases of terror will be brought closer to their homes, and thousands of terrorists will be set free. Success that our foes could never dream to achieve will be handed to them. For what? What is being gained in return? There are still terror alerts throughout Israel; suicide bombers are blowing themselves up in the heart of Israel, murdering innocent Jews.’

“The premise of the plan states: The process of this engagement will serve to dispel claims regarding Israel’s responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. But the official text later details that Israel will be obligated to continue to provide water pipes, electricity, industrial zones, markets, employment, and an industrial zone to sustain the Palestinian Arab economy of Gaza.

“Rabbi Joseph Garlinski, chairman of the Congress for Peace, said, ‘This so-called plan isn’t about separating from the Palestinians. It’s about giving in to terror, pure and simple.”

Tom: Dave, you’re in the process of writing a book about this, which you’re very close to having finished, so I don’t want to get in your way on this. The absurdity—even if you took only 10 percent of the concerns from this quote that Jewish people have—the absurdity is that they are going to continue in the so-called independent lands, they’ll have the responsibility of financially supporting it while the Palestinian terrorists will have carte blanche!

Dave: Yeah, and Tom, there are a number of problems here. First of all, it wasn’t Moses who commanded the Jews to settle the Promised Land—that was God’s command, and Moses was only passing that on. This is the land that God gave to these people as an everlasting inheritance, 1 Chronicles 16 tells you that, and there are many other verses. Now look, it’s a little bit late for this protest. Israel has already acquiesced to give up most of their land. They have about 12 percent, I think, now, of the land that God gave them.

Now, I grant you that Israel has been under heavy pressure—European Union—“Well, you don’t do this, we don’t buy your stuff.” They could bankrupt Israel. Israel has been under heavy pressure from the United States—“Do this,” you know, and so forth.

But it’s not just that these settlements have been there for three decades, some of them, but this is the land that God gave to these people 4,000 years ago. They have a title deed signed by God to this land. And, Tom, yes, I have been working on a book and I’ve finished it, and we have to, you know, get it ready for printing, and so forth. But I can tell you that God is very angry. He’s angry with the nations of the world, but He is also angry with Israel for consenting to this.

Leviticus:25:23The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
See All..., God says: “The land is Mine, and it is not to be sold forever.” You don’t trade it, you don’t sell it. Most people don’t know that whatever land Israel has was first of all given to them by the United Nations in a partitioning, okay? Secondly, they have a little bit more than was originally given to them in the partitioning, but the partitioning was giving them 13 percent of what the world had promised to them. Britain gave 77 percent of it away to create the country of Jordan, and so forth.

But any land that Israel has beyond what they were originally given, they have taken it in self-defense against an enemy that has sworn to exterminate them, and I mean exterminate! And we give you quote after quote—we have in The Berean Call. Anyone who is interested just go to our web, or call us on the phone, our 800 number, and we will provide you with quotation after quotation after quotation from leading Arabs, from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Syria to Iraq, wherever it is, that they intend to exterminate the Jews and this is what Muhammad said.

So now they have taken this in self defense. I think it was Time magazine, way back in ‘88, that said: “If the Arabs had not attacked Israel, they would have been living in their own Palestinian nation for the last 40 years.” Israel didn’t attack anyone. They were attacked.

Okay, so they have taken some land, higher ground. You’ve got to take the Golan, they are lobbing shells down from there, they are attacking you continually. Whatever land they’ve taken, they have taken it in self defense from an enemy that has attacked them repeatedly in order to exterminate them. In addition to that, Tom, Israel has given back more than 95 percent of the land that it took. I ask anyone, you go back in history—there have been a lot of wars, a lot of conquering has been going on—who ever gives the land back to the enemy that is still determined to destroy them? Nobody! But Israel has done this—they have been forced to. And now, they are finally protesting. They are down to almost nothing; they’ve almost nothing left of what God gave them, and now they want to give it away—for peace, with an enemy that doesn’t want peace, they have sworn to exterminate you. Tom, God is angry and He is going to bring the world into judgment for this.

Tom: It’s not available yet, so please don’t call us, but hopefully, in the next few months we will have Judgment Day available.