Standing With Israel

As published in Petah Tikvah Asia Pacific Messianic Edition, February 2008

As the State of Israel celebrates its 60th Independence Day Anniversary on May of this year, the horror of seeing it divided looms inevitably larger. The moral confusion, distorted guilt, and false hopes is evident as the nation succumbs to the pressure to accept United States proposal for a Two-State solution. Writing several years ago about Israel's Oslo Agreements, Israeli novelist Aharon Megged observed: "We have witnessed a phenomenon which probably has no parallel in history; an emotional and moral identification by the majority of Israel's intelligentsia with people openly committed to our annihilation." This identification has been reinforced in a constant succession of Israeli governments.


David Be Guion flanked by the members of his provisional government reading the declaration of independence in the Tel Aviv Museum Hall.


Land for Peace

A lesson in the Torah would prove handy on how to deal with bellicose neighbors. In the case of Jepthah, in the Book of Judges, he has to confront the Ammonite King's argument: “Israel took my land…and now, return them in peace." This is exactly the same formula that present day Arabs proffer: land for peace. But unlike the present leaders of Israel, Jepthah did not balk, giving instead the King of Ammon a detailed geography and history lesson. This debunking of the Ammonite claim is hinged on the theological right of Israel that "the whole world belongs to the Holy One blessed be He: He created it and He gave it to whomever it was right in His eyes to give it. Through His will He gave it to them and through His will He took it from them and gave it to us".

As we advance Israel’s right over Judea and Samaria, we do so, on the basis of their biblical, historical, legal, pragmatic and prophetic aspect. No other people would have a comparable pedigree to justify their legitimacy to live on their homeland than Israel.


The Biblical Right

I Am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you… the whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you. (Genesis 17:1,8)

This covenant was confirmed time and again with Moses, Joshua, David and Solomon. Judea and Samaria covers Bethel, Shiloh, Shechem, Bethany, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jerusalem. These are the mountains of Israel, the very heart of the land promised by God to the Children of Israel.



Historical Right

Ninety years ago, Britain, thru Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, promised a national home for the Jewish people. This promise was soon realized at the end of World War I, when the British and French drew up borders on the former Ottoman Empire. Later in 1920, League of Nations came into force which gave birth to “Mandate for Palestine” that laid down the Jewish Legal Right to settle in the land. Almost at the same time after World War II, these mandates had been replaced by monarchies in Iraq and Jordan and republican governments in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. No one debates the legitimacy of these Arab nations who were all defined, protected and later granted independence by the United Nation. If they are legitimate sovereign nations, so is Israel.



Legal Aspect over Judea and Samaria

In 1947, United Nation Resolution 181 recommended to partition the territory still subject to the Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. This could have handed over Judea and Samaria to an Arab State. The Jews accepted the recommendation but the Palestinian Arabs and their brethren rejected it. The UN Partition of Palestine merely recognized the Jewish right to statehood, but it is not legally valid to define its territory as it was rejected by the Arabs. Resolution 181’s validity hinged on acceptance of the General Assembly’s recommendation by both parties Thus, the UN Partition plan has not superceded or annulled the original Mandate.




When seven Arab armies from neighboring states invaded the territory, in an attempt to prevent the establishment of a Jewish State in accordance with the UN Partition Plan, the Jewish state not only survived, but came into possession of territories from the land of its adversaries.

A case in point is Judea and Samaria. Yehuda Z. Blum’s advances the "missing reversioner theory” by stating that Jordan's aggression against Israel in 1967 caused it to lose its title to the West Bank, creating a sovereignty vacuum that Israel stepped in to fill. In that case, the Fourth Geneva Convention would not apply because Israel had not occupied another state's sovereign territory, there was no sovereign to whom the territory could revert, and the settlements could not be in violation of the Convention.

Pragmatic Aspect

As much as the reality of incessant terrorist attacks affords the Israelis no choice but to hope for a two-state solution, the faulty assumptions that the Palestinian Arab society will be good neighbors towards Israel is nothing less but a pipe-dream. The 100 years of chronic Arab rejectionism towards Israel will not change overnight. At the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Arab world's refusal to accept a non-Muslim political entity
in the Middle East. From the Balfour Declaration, UN Partition Plan, Camp David Talks, Madrid Conference, Oslo Accords up to the Middle East Road Map, Arab response is consistently the two-pronged offensive that dovetails diplomacy with violence. In short, the Arabs, and particularly the Palestinians, have flatly refused to recognize Israel’s legitimate existence or to negotiate genuine compromise. Instead, they have maintained to drive the Jews out to the Mediterranean Sea through violence and terror.

Hopes on the ‘peace process’ exacted a terrible toll on Israel. The 256 people killed in Israel by Palestinian terrorists in the five years following signing of the first Oslo Accord, was greater than the 216 killed in the 15 years preceding the agreement. From 1993-2005, the ‘Oslo experiment’ cost the lives of 1,340 persons, half of whom are victims of suicide bombings.


Prophetic Fulfillment

“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding people reeling, Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all nations of the world be gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” (Zechariah 12)

The United Nations, United States and the European Union have unceasingly broker for the peace process that forces Israel to give up Judea and Samaria. In a frantic effort of bolstering the establishment of the State of Palestine before his term ends this year, President Bush hosted the Annapolis Conference and later visited the Holy Land.

In response, Jewish religious groups articulated their sentiments in a scroll addressed to the US president: “No government in Israel and no representative of the Jewish people has the power or right to alter, by even the slightest degree, our covenant with God and the words of our holy Torah, which are everlasting, as expressed by the prophets of Israel. Thus any desire, plan or agreement that challenges the eternal sovereignty and active possession of the nation of Israel over her entire land is utterly worthless, and has no basis in reality.”

Our Response

More than ever, our generation has this privilege to be part of unfolding fulfillment of biblical prophecy. As Israel celebrates their 60th Founding Anniversary on the 8th of May this year, Filipinos can stand and be counted as we join the 3rd Israel Solidarity March in Metro Manila. Aligning ourselves with the Word of God is a matter of national survival.


Israel Solidarity March in Makati Avenue, August 2006

For participation, please contact:

Mount Zion Center
102 Sterten Place, 116 Maginhawa St.
Teachers Village, Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila
(632) 396-2660
admin@mzci.org