The Torah and The Land

The Middle East has been the centre of world attention ever since 1948 with the formation of the State of Israel. At present the hot topic in the world, besides ISIS, is Israel. It receives more UN resolutions against it than any other country in the world including those who have no human rights for their citizens! The world has had a major focus on the Two State Solution for a long time. Obama et al  narrowed this down in the last eight years to the issue of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem as the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East. This culminated in the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016 which effectively declares that Israel is the illegal occupier of the West Bank and East Jerusalem including the Wailing Wall, Judaisms most holy site. This resolution thus declares that these areas are occupied illegally by Israel and belong to the so called Palestinians.

Palestine and the Palestinians
Who are the Palestinians firstly and what is the West Bank from a Biblical perspective? The West Bank shown in the map in red refers to what was Judea and Samaria while the small red area called Gaza was the area where the Philistines, the mortal enemies of the Israelis lived. So let us start with what is Palestine and who are the Palestinians?

The word 'Palestine' comes from the Roman Emperor Hadrian who after the Simon Bar Kokhba revolt in 132-135AD changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina and  Judea to Palestina. These are pagan terms and are very Anti-Semitic. After World War I, the name "Palestine" was applied to the territory that was placed under British Mandate; this area included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan. Jews living in what was then called Palestine were referred to as Palestinians prior to 1948. It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of an Arab Palestinian nation was created. This was marketed worldwide very effectively by Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) which he founded.

No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not." In fact, Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called "the holy land" (al-Arad al-Muqaddash). ¹

We are living in a time in which what is good is evil, and what is evil is declared to be good. So the truth has been inverted so the real truth is the West Bank and East Jerusalem are indeed occupied as Resolution 2334 states, NOT by Israel, but by the so called Muslim Palestinians who are the mortal enemy of Israel as were the Philistines! The truth of this is summed up by the following quote;

Israel's international "birth certificate" was validated by the promise of the Bible; uninterrupted Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua onward; the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the United Nations partition resolution of 1947; Israel's admission to the UN in 1949; the recognition of Israel by most other states; and, most of all, the society created by Israel's people in decades of thriving, dynamic national existence.²

Hence those Palestinians living in Judah and Sumaria, the so called West Bank and Jerusalem only have squatter rights as most of them only arrived after the Jewish People returned to the Land creating jobs for them.


The Two State Solution
The PLO's refuses to accept the State of Israel and the rights of Jews to live in the land, but instead of this lays claim to all the land for itself with the Jewish People being pushed out into the sea! It had already been formed when 70% of the land promised in the Balfour Declaration was given to the Arabs as Transjordan leaving the remaining territory west of the Jordan River to the Jewish People. Israel has absorbed all the Jews who were forced to leave their homes in Arab lands while these Arab lands including Jordan have refused entry to any Arabs displace by the Arab instigated conflict against Israel. These people and their descendants are now referred to as Palestinians who are the only group of people with permanent refugee status in the world. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is an organ of the United Nations created exclusively for the purpose of aiding those displaced by the Arab-Israeli wars, with an annual budget of approximately $600 million.³
To put it plainly the Two State Solution is a demonic plan of the enemy to prevent the return of Messiah to Jerusalem, which will be His Capital.


Torah Promises of Land
God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 13:14-15 After Lot separated himself from him, Adonai had said to Abram, “lift up your eyes, now, and look from the place where you are, to the north, south, east and west. For all the land that you are looking at, I will give to you and to your seed forever. The location of Abram is given in Genesis 13:12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the valley. The map shows the land of Canaan extending from Sidon in the north down into the Negev in the south including part of TransJordan. God repeats His promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21; On that day Adonai cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: the Kenite, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” This extend this Land right upto the Euphrates River down to either the Nile River or more likely the Wadi of Egypt. Again in Genesis 17:8 I will give to you and to your seed after you the land where you are an outsider—the whole land of Canaan—as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
This Land is them promised to Isaac in Genesis 26:3, “Stay in this land, and I will be with you. I will bless you. I will give you and your family all these lands. I will do what I promised to Abraham your father.” And then promised to Jacob in Genesis 28:13, “And then Jacob saw the LORD standing by the ladder. He said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I will give you the land that you are lying on now. I will give this land to you and to your children. These covenant promises are given in Genesis 50:24-25, “When Joseph was near death, he said to his brothers, "My time to die is almost here. But I know that God will take care of you and lead you out of this country. God will lead you to the land he promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Then Joseph asked his people to make a promise. Joseph said, "Promise me that you will carry my bones with you when God leads you out of Egypt." 

Moses is told by God to possess the Land in Numbers 33:50-53 and what will happen if they do not drive out the the inhabitants in Num 33:55-56 “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, whoever you allow to remain will become to you barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land in which you will be living. Then what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you.” And in Deuteronomy 1:8 See, I have set the land before you. Enter and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their descendants after them.’ and in 30:5 that God commanded Israel to possess all the Land of Canaan to be the Land of Israel, the Promised Land.

The Prophets confirm that this Land belongs to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who is called Israel and will return to the Land. In Ezekiel 37:21 -22 Then say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will take Bnei-Yisrael from among the nations, where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms.

Partial Fulfilment
On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. On 14 May 1948 the State of Israel was declared by Ben-Gurion fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 66:8 of a nation being created in one day. The Arab nations have consistently refused to accept the State of Israel and have tried to take all the land away from the Jewish people without success.

We can see the consequence of the Israelites not driving out the idolatrous nations from the Land today. The descendants of Ishmael and Esav now lay claim to the very Land that the God of the Bible promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jewish people. These descendants of Ishmael and Esav are not part of the Covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but are half brothers of the Jewish People.

The One State Solution of God
How does the Torah handle the nations, the Gentiles (in Hebrew goyim) who are outside this Covenant and these half-brothers, the Arabs who are also goy? Abram was a goy before he “crossed over” to become a Hebrew by faithful in the El Shaddai, the Almighty God (Genesis 17:1). Those goy who 'cross over' and come into covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob become gêr (גּר) a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, or a newcomer lacking inherited rights (BDB definition). This is covered in Ezekiel 47:22 - 23 So you are to divide it by lot for an inheritance for you and for the outsiders (ger) who dwell among you, whoever bears children among you. They will be to you like the native-born of Bnei-Yisrael; they will be allotted an inheritance along with you among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the outsider (ger) lives, there you will give him his inheritance.” It is a declaration of Adonai. The sojourner have permanent residence without voting right. They effectively have no vote within the PLO or Gaza at present as Arab countries do not operate in a democratic way as the Western nations do.
A ger toshav is a Gentile who resides in the land of Israel and accepts the authority of the Torah. They would have full residence rights but not be able to vote except be may be for local elections. This would be very similar to what is the situation in the UK where foreigners can obtain permanent residence or in America where only native born Americans can become President. Those Palestinians who do want to become ger toshav would have temporary residence until they can either return to their country of origin or Jordan which was originally set-up for this purpose or one of the other Arab states that would accept them. This could not happen over night as the issues are complex, but in stages from the complex to the very complexed, starting with the issue of the West Bank, then Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and finally with Gaza.

Another term is used in the Talmud, ger tzedek for a righteous sojourner. In the codes of Jewish law this means a proselyte who has fully convert to Judaism. This would give them full citizen rights, the same as an Israeli.

Conclusion
For this One State Solution to have any chance of success there would need to be a major political shift in world starting with the USA and in the Arab world. We are already seeing this turn around in American politics with President Trump and even Theresa May of the UK. So what appeared impossible just a few months ago is not so impossible now. This year is the centennial celebration of the Balfour Declaration and fifty years since the Six Day war where Israel regained the Temple Mount. So all things are possible when we come to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in prayer in the name of Yeshua HaMashiach.


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