No Single Event has monopolized recent news from Israel. Instead several small but notable developments have occurred. By themselves, none of the items seems of major significance, but considered together they indicate Christ’s return is required to bring lasting peace to the area, and indeed to the entire earth.
Fatah calls for Israel’s destruction
In August, the Palestinian Fatah movement developed a website (www.fatah.org) which calls the Zionist movement “racial, colonial and aggressive in ideology, goals, organization and method. The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism.” The website continues declaring to “Liberate Palestine and protect its holy places is an Arab, religious and human obligation.”
Specific mention is made of article 12 of the Palestinian constitution which lists the goal of the Fatah movement as “Complete liberation of Palestine and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.” The constitution says “armed public revolution is the inevitable method for liberating Palestine.” “Armed struggle,” the constitution reads, “is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab people’s armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.”
The Jerusalem Post reported August 10, 1998: “Israeli officials were stunned by the Fatah web site. David Bar-Man, director of policy planning for Prime Minister Netanyahu, called the constitution ‘in some ways worse than the Palestinian covenant.’ This is as clear an indication as any that the PLO has not abandoned its intention to destroy the State of Israel,” he said.
Oslo accord
It has been some five years since the Oslo peace accord was signed. In that time, Israel has moved forward on the peace plan, although the initiative has stalled noticeably this past year on two fronts. The Fatah website makes no mention of the accord, and goes so far as to indicate that they oppose “any political solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation in Palestine.” Secondly, Israel has refused to move forward in continued discussions. Further, Netanyahu has turned down an invitation from the Norwegian government to attend a fifth anniversary commemoration of the accords.
It was reported by the Associated Press: “The Prime Minister thought it would not look good if he attended, when the Oslo work is not completed here. Indeed, with Arafat refusing to meet Netanyahu and the prime minister under attack internationally for delaying to implement the second pullback, it appears the prime minister feared attending the Oslo ceremonies might not produce favorable public relations, especially with his anti-Oslo coalition partners.”
Since their signing in 1993, Netanyahu has regularly attacked the Oslo Accords, but has grudgingly reiterated commitment to carry Oslo forward.
Palestinian cabinet
Since the inception of the Palestinian nation, their leader Yasser Arafat has had difficulty maintaining a government void of corruption. This creates a crisis that could have a negative effect on negotiations with Israel, because a weak Palestinian government will find it hard to forge effective agreements. The current crisis began a year ago, but reached its climax in August. It started when many complaints were made public about the corruption and waste in Palestinian government ministries. A committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council uncovered financial irregularities in the political machinery of the Palestinian Authority, and Yasser Arafat promised to appoint new ministers and present a new cabinet
When Arafat announced his new cabinet in early August, it only took a few days for very vocal criticism to be leveled at the new government. The main complaint is that the government is inflated and those suspected of corruption kept their jobs. However, the most poignant criticism of the cabinet is that it is being described as a “war cabinet.”
Possible attack?
The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz reported that Iran is once again in the process of developing long-range missiles capable of decimating Israel. “Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed that Iran is developing what he called ‘a range of missiles.’ He said that the Iranians are devoting a substantial portion of their gross national product to turn the country into a regional nuclear power, but their claim of developing a ‘pure Iranian missile’ without any outside help was false.” Netanyahu added that Russian scientists were and are a prerequisite for all missile development in the country. The United States is presently imposing sanctions on Russian companies supplying technology to Iran, confirming Israel’s opinion. Netanyahu further commented, “I can’t say that the Russian government is taking all necessary steps to prevent the flow of information into Iran.”
Moving away from God
In the past 20 years, the population of Israel has increased by more than 50% growing from 3 million people in 1975 to more than 4.6 million in 1996. Despite this increase, there were 28,000 fewer marriages in 1996 as compared to 1975. The Israeli government’s Central Bureau of Statistics indicates: “This shows clearly that a growing number of people don’t bother marrying at all, and simply live as ‘common-law’ couples — with the courts and Knesset increasingly giving them rights similar to married couples.”
As can be concluded, God’s chosen people are once again in a position where they need to connect with His word. The Oslo accord is dormant, the nations surrounding Israel are declaring war on her, and God’s nation chooses to drift away from His ordinances. Truly, only divine intervention can begin to resolve this tangled web of hatred and intrigue. Let us pray that it may come quickly.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One