Volume 53, Issue 2 ________________________________Bible Prophecy Ministry



Others Aspire to Occupy the Land?


     In 1947-48, the leaders of five Arab countries pledged to push the Jews of the developing State of Israel into the sea. In its absence those five leaders obviously envisioned a chance for carving out their own individual slices of territory and occupying the land which then comprised the new State of Israel. That tiny little infant Jewish State had been partitioned out of the Middle East by U.N. Resolution 181 in November of 1947. Those Arab leaders attempted to fulfill their pledge by occupying historic Judea and Samaria and the Sinai until the 1967 War. During that 19 year span, the area of "the West Bank" (west of the Jordan River), large portions of the city of Jerusalem, the areas called Gush Etzion, and the Sinai desert all formerly settled by Jews, saw them evicted or killed. That was phase one of the Arab dream to dislodge the Jews from the disputed territory. Then in phase two, the Arab leaders called upon the local peasantry to abandon their villages on the pretext that it would clear the way for the advancing Arab armies to attack the sliver of land remaining to the Jewish State. So in 1948 of a total population of about 800,000 Arabs, approximately 650,000 heeded the call to uproot and relocate despite calls from the resident Jews for them to stay and live together in peace. This Arabic call to abandon the area is very peculiar since the 1948 villages would not have impeded the advancing Arab armies in the least. In fact, the hordes of relocating peoples on the move only served to clog the roads and present a massive logistical problem of setting up temporary living camps (which eventually became permanent and funded by the UN), complete with the infrastructures needed for day to day living.

    Why did the Arabs leaders of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon want to clear the Land of Arabs?

    The Arabs of Palestine left their homes, were scattered, and lost everything. But there remained one solid hope: The Arab armies were on the eve of their entry into Palestine to salvage the land and return things into the Arab domain in normal course, punish the aggressor, and throw oppressive Zionism with its dreams and dangers into the sea.

    A 1945 census showed that only 650,000 Arabs lived in Palestine. A report by the UN Mediator on Palestine arrived at an even lower figure for the refugees, 472,000. From the five invading Arab nations that launched the invasion on Israel, there was created 820,000 Jewish refugees, 586,000 of which were resettled in Israel. So, no matter how you slice the refugee problem in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the facts show that there is a struggle over the now so-called “occupied territory”. Israel today is seeking to settle the land with aliyah settlers, while the Arab nations simply sought to occupy it for themselves via two attempts at military conquest ( 1948 and 1967 ) over Israel.

    In retrospect, it appears that the intentions of the Arab countries were to lay claim to whatever land the advancing armies could conquer, each leader sectioning out a parcel for his own kingdom. And make no mistake about it, they certainly expected to win it all, especially in light of the fact that Israel only fielded a 650,000 man poorly armed, non-military and fractional civilian resistance force. With the local Arab population gone, the five invading armies had only to slaughter the Jews and claim their booty. So the native Arabic peoples fled, feeling certain that they would return to not only their own homes but that all the properties of the Jews would also be theirs. Of course, the armies of the five Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia) failed and the fleeing immigrant Arabs ended up in permanent UN refugee camps because the invading Arab countries refused, to absorb them into their own societies.

    Jordan pronounced its annexation of the land that today comprises the West Bank in April 1950. The Madrid Peace Conference framework enabled Jordan to be extricated from the controversy over the Disputed Territory in 1993, and to be included in the geo-political maze of the building peace-with-security apparatus designed to be implemented around Israel through the multi and bi-lateral tracks of the Middle East Peace Process. The Palestine Liberation Organization never materialized into existence during the Jordanian jurisdiction over the West Bank. The Yasser Arafat led PLO was created in 1964 during a meeting known as the Palestinian Congress in an effort to give a voice to the large number of Palestinians living in the UN refugee camps in Lebanon. It expanded its organization after the Arab defeat in the 1967 six day war to Israel, establishing as its agenda the goal of a phased plan to establish a base in the West Bank from which to destroy Israel.

    So today when Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians raise the issue of Occupation, it is well worth remembering that all the neighboring Arab countries of Israel have attempted to occupy this land in the past. Israel only occupies this disputed territory today because Israel's enemies have lost it! Therefore the dispute over the rightful ownership of the land persists today because the powers of the world are seeking to deny it to Israel. Thus the reason for the usage of the terminology while it is under Israeli rule as “occupied territory,” with its status to be determined through negotiations.

    But as I analyze the prophetic word regarding the dilemma of Israel and the city of Jerusalem in our Last Days drama, it is apparent to me that the worlds geo-political center of powers are plotting to restrict the boundaries of Israel. They are also working to inhibit Israel from exercising complete sovereignty over the “disputed territories.” Afterall, the frontline in this supernatural conflict is drawn right around the city of Jerusalem! The Bible foretells that the coming Antichrist will desire Jerusalem for his Kingdom, but just like all the previous occupiers he will be defeated by the returning and triumphant King of the Jews!



Author: Darrell G. Young
Copyright©2002





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