It never seems to stop. Israelis face its threat every day. The wave of mostly lone-wolf terror attacks started about 6 months ago. It has taken many forms. Prime Minister Netanyahu describes it. “We are in an ongoing battle against terrorism; terrorism of knives, terrorism of shootings, of bombs, of rockets and even of tunnels.” The PM was referring to a tunnel the IDF discovered using a new technology that ran as much as 130 feet underground, running from Gaza into Israeli proper.[i] But the latest attack was the bombing of an empty bus that destroyed that vehicle, started a neighboring bus on fire and injured 21 people, some severely. About 30 Israelis have been killed since this new round of violence began. But the kill ratio has not been kind to the terrorists. Around 200 Palestinians have died at the hands of IDF or other Israeli security forces while attempting to carry out attacks. It is a math that defies logic, fed only by a deep-seated hate that has germinated for millennia – and is watered by the lie that is Palestinian nationalism. [This people has no basis in history. They are a political creation of the second half of the 20th century; come into being only after the foundation of the[ii] modern state of Israel. There never was a Palestinian State!
Terrorism is what’s driving the Israeli response. Following a major wave of terror that occurred in the early 2000s, Israel began construction of a security fence or separation barrier to make it harder for the terrorists to enter Israel proper. Condemned by much of the world, the fence has nonetheless worked. As of February 2016, it was reported that “not a single suicide bomber has managed to cross Israel’s border with Gaza.”[iii] But besides its very practical side, it may have important prophetic significance. The prophet Obadiah deals with God’s judgments on Edom, the modern-day Palestinians. In the first several verses he sets the tone. “Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom… (…‘Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle’): “ Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you”. (Obadiah 1:3) Then the vision of Obadiah pronounces both judgment and sentence. To understand the Biblical language, recall that in the Old Testament, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Verse 10 gives the judgment. “For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.” Obadiah 1:15 gives the time of and reason for the sentence. It will be executed as we approach the day of Christ’s return. “For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.” It is interesting too, the use of the term “reprisal”. That is the term often used by the media to describe the “cycle of violence”, as they would have it, between Israel and the Palestinians. Then in verses 17&18, we find the terms of the sentence: Total destruction. “The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; But the house of Esau shall be stubble; They shall kindle them and devour them, and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,” For the LORD has spoken.” The terms are stark indeed! Not one “…shall remain of the house of Esau”.
Of course this type of total annihilation is only possible if the Palestinian people are completely separated from the Jews. Intended or not, that is exactly what is being accomplished by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the progressive and looming retreat from the West Bank and what remains of Samaria. It is the Security Fence that enforces that separation. If that security fence becomes part of some Arab / Israeli peace deal, it becomes easy to imagine a scenario in which Palestinian terrorists perpetrate some egregious atrocity on Israel, with massive casualties, bringing the full destructive fury of the IDF upon the whole Palestinian population, thus fulfilling the prophecy. It is even easier to envision if the event occurs in the course of a war in which Israel is desperately engaged fighting for its very survival with Syria and other Arab nations. The sentence is confirmed in Isaiah 14:31. “All you of Philistia are dissolved; For smoke will come from the North.” The entire scenario is reviewed in Zechariah 9. Here the prophet pronounces again “The burden of the word of the LORD”, against Damascus, but this time adds Tyre and Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon, whose power “…will be devoured by fire”. Of course that is where Hezbollah has set up camp with its modernized rocket arsenal ready to launch, and capable of hitting now all of Israel. Zechariah goes on to pronounce against the Philistines (Palestinians) and states emphatically in 9:5, that “The king shall perish from Gaza”. No more Palestinian Authority, – it seems! Gaza is the home of course, of the fanatical Hamas terror entity.
Obadiah describes the extent of Israel’s triumph. She will “…possess the mountains of Esau”, Philistia, (Palestine and Palestinian), Ephraim, Samaria and Gilead. The border of Israel shall extend all the way to Zarephath, which is well into Lebanon; “And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s”. (Obadiah 1:21)
[i]Isabel Kershner, Bus Bombing in Jerusalem Wounds 21, New York Times, April 18, 2016
[ii]Image: Few answers emerge 24 hours after Jerusalem bus bombing, Jerusalem Post, April 19, 2016
[iii] Mitchell Bard, West Bank Security Fence, Jewish Virtual Library, February 2016
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