President Bush has signed a bill officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. It is said to have angered the Arab World. What is interesting here is the fact that in the Bible, God promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse it (Genesis 12:3). The US State Department is opposed to this move including Colin Powell. In this article, Bill Koening shares a perspective about this situation that the world as a rule does not want to consider. Isn't it interesting that in the Book of Zechariah, chapter 14: 1-9, the scriptures tell us of a future event that is going to take place regarding Jerusalem. The signs of the times are all around us. I hope Christian leaders in our nation will continue to stand for truth re: Israel.
Iraq, Jerusalem, and Thoughts
– Bill Koenig
October 1, 2002
Iraq and an Irony
The US has for the last year and a half told Israel they can’t dispose of their arch-enemy, Yassir Arafat, yet the U.S. is aggressively moving forward with strong intentions of eliminating Saddam Hussein and his regime.
It is usually the US State Department that leads the charge in chastising Israel for its desire to exile or minimize Arafat.
That changed after there were two back-to-back suicide bombings on June 18 and 19. President Bush stated in his June 24 Middle East address that Arafat must go. Yet the State Department continues to deal with Arafat’s people.
Israel has a major national security issue [Arafat] in their midst, while the US problem [Saddam] is thousands of miles away.
Hussein is a formidable risk to the US and Israel, but so is Arafat. Arafat is not happy about being minimized by President Bush. Hussein is also cooperating with the Palestinians and has attempted to incite an Israeli response, which always brings a chastisement by the world community. For the most part Israel has restrained their response, except for their entering of Arafat’s compound after a September 18 Tel Aviv suicide bombing.
The US introduced a resolution to the UN Security Council on Monday, September 23, reprimanding Israel's incursion, while eventually abstaining in the vote which allowed the measure to go into affect, the Council voted 14 to 0 demanding that Israel end its siege of Yasser Arafat's West Bank compound. (The day the US introduced the resolution Hurricane Isadore turned north in the Gulf of Mexico and headed towards the United States.)
On Iraq, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer stated yesterday that since 2000 there have been 1,600 incidents of Iraqi attacks against United States and British Aircraft. And since September 16th, the date that the Foreign Minister of Iraq sent a letter to the United Nations saying they would allow for so-called unconditional inspections, Iraq has attacked coalition aircraft 67 times.
Fleischer stated this is a reminder again of how the words of Iraq continue to change, but their actions don’t. Their actions are in defiance of international law and international rule, as they are military attacks on coalition aircraft that are flying to patrol the no-fly zones that Saddam Hussein agreed to in 1991. This should be a very living and vivid display of Iraq’s military intentions.
What about the Palestinians’ words and actions?
Russia’s foreign minister issued a statement criticizing British and U.S. recent air strikes against Iraq, saying the increase in the pace over the last couple of weeks is making diplomacy harder. Other nations have also concurred.
The world community -- while not in favor of Arafat being eliminated or with the US’s plans to dispose Iraq of Saddam -- are more concerned with the Israeli–Palestinian peace talks.
Isn’t it ironic that the US is facing the same international opposition with Saddam as Israel has with Arafat?
Now Secretary Rumsfeld is using attacks on American planes as a justification for American action against Iraq. If the US is proposing a regime change in Iraq, then why should they restrict Israel’s desire to depose or exile Yassir Arafat? The US government has been given volumes of information documenting Arafat’s role in terrorism in Israel and the theft of millions of dollars -- possibly billions -- of his people’s money, but it doesn’t carry the same weight, because Israel is the source of the information and the Arabs have the oil.
Israel has also been asked not to respond if Iraq hits them.
It looks like the Lord is allowing circumstances to play out, where the situation in Israel is similar to the situation the US is facing. Fortunately, we have passionate people in the US Congress who will speak out for Israel.
Jerusalem Capital Decision
Congress recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital yesterday, but the White House, in a statement letter, will argue the language on Jerusalem reflects a “sense of the Congress” and is not binding for US policy, a senior official said.
Again this is an attempt by the Bush Administration (and the State Department) to “appease” the Arabs at the expense of God’s covenant land. It was the State Department who had persuaded the Bush Administration to give a comprehensive address to the UN General Assembly to “appease” the Arabs last summer. The 45 days of preparation for that address had been completed, but it was interrupted by the 9-11 events.
(To review the commentary on 9-11: please click here.)
The Washington Post reported President Bush, at the risk of angering the Arab and Muslim worlds, signed legislation requiring the administration to identify Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a US official said.
Faced with a choice of between endorsing the controversial legislation passed by Congress and shutting down US diplomatic activity, Bush put his name to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for 2003, which gives the administration more than $4 billion for running the State Department.
Administrations have promised to make the move but have repeatedly put it off because of the ill feeling it would create in the Arab world, which considers East Jerusalem to be occupied territory and the capital of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Koenig's International News ·
http://watch.org/ ·
"Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals - that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government - that it is not a charter FOR government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection AGAINST the government."
-- Ayn Rand