Previous Page: MAP of land biblically mandated to Israel This Page (Clockwise from Left): ISHMAEL—told to leave Israel (COURTESY: wikipedia); PALESTINIAN YOUTH(COURTESY: humanemergencemiddleeast.org); DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL—May 14, 1948 (COURTESY: wikipedia); HADRIAN—Roman Emperor in 132 changed name of Israel to Palestine (COURTESY: britishmuseum.org).


persecuted and forced to wear yellow badges in the shape of the Star of David so that they could be distinguished from Muslims. Sound familiar? This is 1,000 years before the Holocaust when Hitler would again force Jews to wear such badges. Where do you think he got the idea? Muslim rule over Israel lasted until


around 1100 when the Crusades came in from the East. Muslims would later regain control and again be kicked out by the Ottoman Turks that ruled until 1918. Arab Muslims lost a lot of their glory long ago when their empire fell. In their effort to regain that glory, they have tried changing history by throwing in violence and protests to convince the world that they got short- changed along the way. Unfortunately, so many people never


go back to study history. Instead they reason that the Arabs must be right or they wouldn’t be so willing to sacrifice their sons and daughters. Today Palestinians claim that what


happened to them next was a travesty, and it’s another key reason they believe Israel belongs to them. The vast empire of Great Britain wanted to add Israel to its collection. In order to do that, Britain needed to defeat those Ottoman Turks who were ruling Israel, but they couldn’t do it without help from the Arabs. They knew the Arabs wanted to have their own homeland, so they made a deal. They promised if the Arabs would help


them defeat the Ottoman Turks, they’d give the Arabs their very own land. So the Arabs helped, believing that “the Land” would be Israel. Wrong! In the end, Britain said, “Thanks for your help in our victory, Arabs.


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Here’s your land, Jordan.” The Arabs felt they got short changed and massive Arab rioting against Jews broke out in Israel. The Jews were claiming it was their land, and the Arabs saw this as a threat to their sovereign claim.


If God’s intent was to have Ishmael share the Land, then why did God kick Ishmael out and tell him he would have to set up shop elsewhere?


It’s good to see what the biblical view


of the Land is. Just as Muslims have their holy book, we Christians and Jews have ours, the Bible. Like the Koran, the Bible says that Abraham’s descendants would inherit the Land through Isaac and Jacob— not Ishmael.


Abraham fell facedown; he


laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.” —Genesis 17:17-19 NIV


So the Land Covenant made with God


and Abraham would extend from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, but not through


Ishmael. The Bible does promise that Ishmael would also become a great nation, but that nation would not be Israel. These are the words of the very Word of God itself. Of that there is no dispute. Think about it, Ishmael was to have his


own land. If God’s intent was to have Ish- mael share the Land, then why did God kick Ishmael out and tell him he would have to set up shop elsewhere? Clearly the Land belongs to those who descended from the Twelve Tribes—the Jews. The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, saying:


“The time is coming,” declares


the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”


—Jeremiah 31:31-33 Clearly the Bible says that though


Israel broke covenant with God, He did not cast them out as His Covenant People. He simply extended a new covenant to them in order that their blessings would remain intact. God’s covenant promises are eternal.


CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 MARCH/APRIL 2010 Jewish Voice Today | 13


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