Ganging Up On Israel
The so-called Yom Kippur War of last October came as a tremendous shock to Israel. She not only sustained a painful loss in the flower of her youth, but also in her military and material resources, and came close to being overrun by the vast hordes of her Arab enemies equipped with the latest Russian weapons. They also learned the painful lesson that although the Israeli soldier is as brave as any other, he is no superman, and shares the frailties of all humanity.
Yet, Israel’s greatest shock was the realization that in the hour of her direst need, she stood alone in the United Nations, branded as the aggressor by the very Arabs who attacked her and by the notorious international despoilers and deceivers, the Soviet Union.
Only the United States and intrepid little Holland dared to stand by Israel, and defend her interests. The very timing of the Arab attack, when on the Day of Atonement the Jews were assembled in their Synagogues to fast and to pray, was in itself a vivid demonstration of unprecedented treachery. Such are the people whom Israel is facing in her struggle for survival.
Alas, even such old friends of Israel as Great Britain, once the champion of Israel’s independence, this time joined the cohorts of the Arab, African, and other hostile nations in order to appease the Arabs and keep the flow of oil coming.
The motivation of those who condemned or abandoned Israel, was not a sense of justice, but rather a misguided belief that what they are doing is in their best self interest. “Let Israel perish!” they reasoned, “so long as we get our oil. After all, oil is thicker than blood, especially when the blood is Jewish.”
INTERNATIONAL BLACKMAIL AS POLICY
It appears that international law and justice have been replaced by international blackmail and gangsterism, including the policy of murder of innocent bystanders, even women and children.
WHY UPHOLD THE CAUSE OF ISRAEL?
There are some people who naively believe that all would be well again in this beautiful world if only Israel could be abandoned to the Arabs and their Communist allies as a “peace offering”.
But since when has surrender to naked blackmail ever brought peace or security to the world?
Chamberlain tried it when he surrendered Czecho-Slovakia to the Nazi wolves, but that only further whetted Hitler’s appetite and precipitated World War II with all its horrors and dismal consequences.
If we were to give in to Arab blackmail today, as some nations have already done, this would only bring a brief reprieve, but the specter of further and more impossible extortions would continue to hang over the heads of the nations like the Sword of Damocles. In any case, the Arabs would use their oil as a tool of extortion even if Israel never existed. Greed feeds on itself, and the more it succeeds, the more voracious it becomes. The gold bloated sheikhs of Araby, like the famous King Midas, may yet die of a surfeit of gold! The U.S.A. and the other oil hungry nations have it in their power, through mutual cooperation in the use of their resources, to overcome within a reasonable time the energy crisis of today.
But the Arabs are obsessed with their maniacal idea of wiping Israel off the face of the earth, notwithstanding all their assertions and promises to the contrary. The present Arab demand that Israel merely return their occupied territories in wars which they provoked and lost, is only the first stage in their ultimate goal of doing away with Israel altogether.
Consider this! Before 1948, when Israel was confined to her original U.N. assigned borders, did she then enjoy even one day of peace? NO, not even for one day. Her people, her women, and children were daily attacked and murdered by marauding gangs of fedayeen, because murder and pillage was in their blood. The same would surely happen again and very quickly, if Israel were to return all the occupied territories. In order to live securely, Israel must have safe borders.
THE SOVIET UNION, VILLAIN BEHIND THE SCENES
There is yet another and even more sinister aspect to the present Arab-Israel conflict – imperialist Soviet Russia, whose declared ultimate goal is to become the most powerful empire on earth, and to subdue all other nations. The first stage in this geopolitical plan is to become master of the Middle East with all its colossal resources in oil, and its vital sea lanes, so essential to the trade routes and industry of the Western World. Should Russia succeed in this, no human power would be able to dislodge her from there, just as nobody has thus far been able to dislodge her from all the lands which “peace loving Russia” stole from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and parts of Finland. If one has any doubts about this diabolical design for the future of mankind, and about their inhuman methods, he should read the latest book by that heroic Russian fighter for freedom, the Nobel Prizewinner Alexander Solzhenitsin, “The Gulag Archipelago”.
THE COINCIDENCE OF MUTUAL INTERESTS
It is well to remember that when America helps Israel, she is defending her own interests, which happen to coincide with Israel’s survival as a viable nation. It is futile to think that we could buy the goodwill of the Arabs or Soviet Russia by sacrificing Israel to them. We might have to pay a fearsome price for this in the days to come.
In more than thirty years as editor of ISRAEL MY GLORY we have always refrained from writing about political events. But how can one, as a Christian, neatly divide current events from prophecy, especially where Israel is concerned, the apple of His eye, and the focal point of history?
“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.” Deut. 32:8, 9
On the basis of Scripture, Christians believe that God granted the land of Israel to the people of Israel. The history of the Jews in Israel goes back some 4,000 years to Abraham himself, and some Jews have always lived there. In recent years the Jews have transformed this ravaged land from a howling wilderness into a highly cultivated modern country. To accomplish this they had to pay dearly with their life blood, their sweat and tears, not counting the enormous financial investment of world Jewry in the rebuilding of Israel.
A GRIM LESSON FOR AMERICA
The Arab-Israel conflict also has a rather grim lesson for the United States. Many Americans have discovered with dismay that some of our so-called “friends and allies” are not such good friends after all. When “our friends” were in real trouble, we were the first to rush to their aid with all the means at our disposal. But when America recently tried to supply Israel with the necessary means for her survival, these “friends and allies” would not permit our planes to refuel in their lands, or even to fly over their territories. This “friendship” has often proved to be a very one-sided affair. This is a sad lesson, but one which we must take into account.
THE SPIRITUAL ASPECT OF THE ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT
Apart from all political and economic considerations, we must, as Christians, learn a spiritual lesson; that God’s Word stands eternally true, no matter what the Communists, the Arabs or the World Council of Churches may say about this.
History has repeatedly confirmed the veracity of God’s Word:
“In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem.” Zech. 12: 3, 9
God has not abandoned His eternal purpose concerning His people: to make them a nation worthy of His calling, else He would have permitted them to perish long ago. But Israel lives on in spite of all odds. Zechariah’s inspired vision of Israel’s destiny still holds true today:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications; they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Zech. 12:10
All history, including current events, are working toward this end. God may even today be giving us a preview of the nations which shall be gathered in the Valley of Armageddon – the valley of decision – to deal with them there, and also to bring His people to repentance and salvation.
We believe that Israel’s current trouble is just a foretaste of Jacob’s “great trouble,” at the end of which they will at last “look upon him whom they have pierced.”
Current events have lessons both for Israel and for America. Israel needs to learn not to trust alone in her military prowess and invincibility but in the God of her salvation.
America must learn that our safety depends not just on our vast resources or great ingenuity, or on our military alliances and trading partners, but on the God of our forefathers.
Our national motto, engraved on our paper money and on our coins must also be engraved upon our hearts: IN GOD WE TRUST.
