Israel

Israel

PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE:
The nation and the land of Israel are the subject of many Old Testament prophecies. Many of them relate to God's plans for the nation, warnings of judgment because of their disobedience, and restoration after they were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

There are also comforting prophecies about Israel's distant future, and especially their role in the future righteous kingdom that will be established by the Messiah.

In our lifetime we have witnessed one of the most amazing fulfillments - the promise of Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37 that the chosen people will be brought back from all over the Earth and re-born as a nation. This, of course, was fulfilled in 1948 when, against all odds, Israel declared independence, and with God's help, has been able to fight off enemies on all sides for over 65 years.

The current wave of violence between Israel and the Palestinians could die out and become one of many such cycles in the area, or it could lead to more serious war. The outcome of this war could be a most welcome peace agreement.

Such a peace agreement might be just another phase in the age-old struggle between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael, or it could be the false peace mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:3. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (NIV)

When Israel finally is at peace, it will be the first time since they became a nation in 1948 that they have enjoyed such security. This could cause them to lower their guard, which would set the scene for yet another war, such as the one predicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39. (Many good Bible teachers think that war is more likely at the end of the Tribulation, but it does not correspond exactly to the Battle of Armageddon.) If it does come before the Tribulation, it will most likely correspond to the 2nd Seal of Revelation 6.

The dramatic end of this great war of the 2nd Seal could produce the treaty predicted in Daniel 9:27, which many prophecy scholars identify as the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period.

Key Scriptures
Background
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Key Scriptures

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Current Events and Links

Prophetic Significance of Israel

See also:
The Temple
Feasts of Israel
Mid-East Conflict
Peace
Other Israel Links
Archaeology (Apologetics Central)

Notice: Sources often remove their news links after a period of time. Some of them move older stories to a subscription-only section. Even if the story is no longer on line, our summary will still be available on this page.

Names translated from other languages may have different spelling, depending on the source. For example Hizbollah may be translated "Hezbollah," "Hizballah," etc.


See more recent articles: After December 31, 2014


Russia angling for share in Israeli natural gas

Dec. 19, 2014 - Russia has expressed interest in Israel's Mediterranean gas fields.
Gazprom, for one, showed interest in becoming a partner in the Leviathan reserve, one of the most important in the Mediterranean Sea, but nothing substantive came of it.
Source: Hamodia
Editor's Note: We have taught for many years, even before the discovery of the great natural gas fields off Israel's coast, that this could be the motivation of the attack against Israel at some future time.
Sorry, Putin. Russia’s economy is doomed - Washington Post

Prophetic Significance of Israel


Netanyahu: Too many in Europe have learned nothing from the slaughter of 6 million Jews

Dec, 18, 2014 -The European Court of Justice has made a preliminary decision to take Hamas off the EU’s list of terrorist organizations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a stern reaction:
Hamas, he said, “has committed countless war crimes and countless terror acts. It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing. But we in Israel, we've learned."
Netanyahu vowed that Israel will continue to defend their people against "terror and tyranny and hypocrisy."
Source: Jerusalem Post
EU Parliament supports Palestinian state based on pre-1967 lines - JNS
EU court removes Hamas from terror blacklist - Israel Hayom



'Unilateral UN moves will lead to instability'

Dec. 16, 2014 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had a meeting in Rome to discuss the fact that the Palestinians plan to ask the UN to recognize Palestine as an independent state.
In the meeting with Kerry on Monday, Netanyahu requested that the U.S. use its Security Council veto against a Palestinian resolution (which could be proposed on Wednesday) to set a two-year deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Netanyahu told Kerry that the Palestinian plan, without Israeli agreement, would have "destructive consequences."
Source: Israel Hayom

Will there be a ‘third intifada’? If so, what would cause it?

Dec. 11, 2014 - Israeli leaders have downplayed the fear of a "third intifada." However, recent violence has grown worse because Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has incited Palestinians about the status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Last week, Abbas comforted the family of the Palestinian murderer of a Jewish activist in Jerusalem by saying, “He ascended to the high heavens as a martyr, while defending his people’s rights and the holiness of sanctuaries.”
If the current unrest does escalate, the next intifada could be worse than the previous two because it would probably be conducted, not by Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, but by Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel who have the ability to move about freely within the country.
Source: Eric R. Mandel - Jerusalem Post
Al-Aqsa speaker: The slaughter of the Jews is near - Times of Israel

Ministry leader warned of WH action against Israel

Dec. 9, 2014 - Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says she has expected for many years that the White House would turn against Israel. Now the Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that President Obama's administration is considering sanctions against Israel because they are continuing to build Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
Markell admits she's concerned the White House's actions could bring the wrath of God upon the U.S. "My concern is the repercussions against America for cursing the nation of Israel."
She pointed to Zechariah 12, where it is predicted that "all nations – not all nations except one" will come against Israel in the End Times.
Source: OneNewsNow

Syria says Israel has bombed two areas near Damascus

Dec. 8, 2014 - Syria's military report that Israeli planes bombed two areas near Damascus yesterday. One target was near the city’s international airport and the other was near Dimas, close to the Lebanese border.
Since Syria’s conflict began in March 2011, Israel has carried out several airstrikes in the war-torn nation that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles.
It is believed that the targets were weapons [from Iran] being delivered to the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.
Source: NY Daily News
Syria, Iran condemn Israel over Damascus airstrikes - Times of Israel
Iran is playing with fire - YNet News
Update: 12/9/14 - Russia caught violating comittments to Israel and US - Shipment included Yakhont ground-to-sea missiles and anti-aircraft systems Moscow had guaranteed would not be supplied to Hezbollah . - Jerusalem Online

Netanyahu: Israel needs a new government, capable of making tough decisions

Dec. 8, 2014 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hopeful that the country's new elections next March will provide a government that can make tough decisions.
Netanyahu said that Israel seeks peace, but needs a partner that is willing to fight the extremism within Palestinian society, as other Arab leaders are fighting extremism in their countries.
Source: Jerusalem Post

U.S. mulls harsher action against settlement construction

Dec. 5, 2014 -
U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is examining taking action against the construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, rather than making do with issuing denunciatory statements.
Source: Haaretz

Israel’s government on verge of collapse as coalition partners turn on Benjamin Netanyahu

Dec. 1, 2014 -
Israel’s government was on the verge of collapse Sunday night as a split over a controversial new law designating the country as a Jewish state deepened into an all-out assault by cabinet rivals on Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.
Netanyahu warned that he might call for an early general election that would result in forming a new coallition government.
Source: National Post
PM to meet with top ministers in effort to salvage coalition - Times of Israel

Netanyahu: Recognition of Israel as nation state of Jews is basis for future peace accord

Nov. 26, 2014 - Amid foreign controversy that proposed “Jewish state” legislation in Israel will water down the country's democratic character, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that recognizing Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people is the basis of any future peace accord. Israel will still be an exemplary democratic country. He said,
“And for that reason we will anchor in law the national rights of the Jewish people, alongside with assurances of the personal rights of each citizen.”
Source: Jerusalem Post

Poll: Arabs Prefer Israel to Palestinian Authority

Nov. 26, 2014 - Last week a survey conducted by the Statnet Research Institute, which is headed by an Israeli Arab statistician, 77 percent of the respondents said they prefer to live under Israel's control than under the Palestinian Authority.
Source: Israel Today

Exclusive: Cornered but unbound by nuclear pact, Israel reconsiders military action against Iran

NOV. 23, 2014 - At the moment it looks like the world-powers will not reach an acceptable deal about Iran's nuclear future, but even if they do, Israel says that the "sunset clause" in the proposed agreement would limit the plan to a ten year term, and then Iran will be free to develop nuclear weapons.
From the moment this deal is clinched, Israel fears it will guarantee Iran as a military nuclear power. There will be no off ramp, because Iran's reentry into the international community will be fixed.
The bottom line for Israel is, that if such a deal is made with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have to decide to use force to stop Iran's nuclear program. His aides say that Netahyahu does not perefer war, but the opportunity to avoid it may now be lost.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Few signs of movement as deadline for Iran nuclear agreement nears - Prophecy Central's Iran Section

Israeli and Palestinian leaders know what they need to do to stop a ‘third intifada’

Nov. 20, 2014 - Neither the Palestinian leaders nor the Israeli leaders should want a "third intifada," or popular uprising, in Jerusalem or the West Bank. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he is opposed to violent resistance but he has now accused Israel of starting a “holy war” over the al-Aqsa mosque on the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently promised not to change the status quo at the holy sites.

They know what they should do: refrain from inflammatory statements and hold off on provocative acts like new Israeli settlement announcements or Palestinian appeals for recognition by the United Nations.

Source: Washington Post
Is it too late to defuse a third intifada in Jerusalem? - Haaretz
Violence in East Jerusalem; 'Intifada starts today,' Palestinian kids say - YNet News

Netanyahu orders demolition of terrorists' homes after synagogue attack

Nov. 19, 2014 -
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of the two terrorists who carried out Tuesday's attack in Har Nof, the most significant operational step taken in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Hamas, Islamic Jihad Praise Jerusalem Synagogue Massacre - Israel National News
Hamas releases video calling for more attacks in Jerusalem - YNet News
The Iranian Connection? PFLP Terror Group Linked to Jerusalem Synagogue Atrocity Backed by Tehran - Algemeiner
John Bolton: Synagogue Attacked to Show 'No One Is Safe' in Jerusalem - NewsMax

Jewish Worshippers Massacred During Morning Prayers

Nov. 18, 2014 - Two Muslims killed worshippers in the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in Jerusalem this morning.
Four Israelis were killed and another nine were wounded, many of them seriously, during the bloody rampage. Eyewitnesses who survived the attack said the terrorists did not wear head covering, but were shouting “Allah Akbar” - “Allah is Greater”
Source:Israel Today
Three Americans among dead in Palestinian attack on Jerusalem synagogue - Fox
Netanyahu: Israel will 'respond decisively' to murder of Jews in synagogue terror attack - Jerusalem Post
Wave of Palestinian terror starting to resemble a religious war - Haaretz

Kerry: Israel, Jordan agree on steps to reduce Jerusalem tensions

Nov. 14, 2014 - After a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the day, and later with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, US Secretary of State John Kerry praised everyone involved for their commitment to ease tensions in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu had “strongly reaffirmed his commitment to uphold the status quo on Temple Mount,” while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas . . . restated his “commitment to non-violence and to restoring calm” in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Source: Times of Israel

Israel will not cooperate with ‘one-sided’ UN probe into Gaza war

Nov. 14, 2014 - Israeli officials would not allow members of a UN Human Rights Council committee to travel through Israel to Gaza to investigate possible war crimes during the recent Operation Protective Edge. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon explained that the decision was made:
“...in view of the council’s obsessive hostility toward Israel, the committee’s one-sided mandate and committee chairman William Schabas’ declared anti-Israeli positions.”
Source: Haaaretz

Hezbollah blames Israel for killing of five nuclear engineers in Syria

Nov. 12, 2014 - An unnamed Hezbollah commander in Beirut blamed Israeli operatives for killing five nuclear scientists in an ambush in Syria. One of the scientists was an Iranian.
Last May, a military and scientific research center in Damascus was struck in an attack attributed to Israel. In January, Syrian officials accused Israel of striking another scientific research center northwest of Damascus.
Israel bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.
Source: Haaretz

Israeli woman killed in Jerusalem as violence spreads across Israel

Nov. 11 -
An Israeli woman has been killed and three others wounded in two separate Palestinian knife attacks as months of unrest in Jerusalem spread across Israel and the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian teenager from the northern West Bank stabbed an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv.

Later in the day another Palestinian killed a young woman and injured two other people near the Alon Shvut settlement near Jerusalem. These attacks follow months of protests and violence. Over the weekend tensions escalated after Israeli police shot and killed a young Arab-Israeli during a routine arrest.

Source: The Australian
Map: The countries that recognize Palestine as a state - Washington Post
Jerusalem a city on edge as tensions spiral - BBC

Top EU Diplomat Calls to Divide Jerusalem

Nov. 10, 2014 - Federica Mogherini, the European Union's new foreign affairs chief, called for the establishment of a "Palestinian state" and some arrangement for Jerusalem to serve as the capital of both Israel and Palestine.
"We need a Palestinian state - that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union," Mogherini said during a trip to Gaza, devastated by its third conflict in six years.
Mogherini also said that the world "cannot afford" another war in Gaza. Billions of dollars have been given to rebuild Gaza after its latest battle with Israel. She called the situation "a global issue," not just a conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Source: Israel National News

Iran's Khamenei proposes plan for Israel's elimination - on Twitter

Nov. 10, 2014 - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader has posted a nine-point plan to eliminate Israel.
In the post, Khamenei accuses Israel of seeking to realize its goals "by means of infanticide, homicide, violence & iron fist," and says that the only way to stop the "Israeli crimes" is to eliminate the "fake Zionist regime."
Khamenei says he believes his plan will be accepted by the international arena.
Source: Haaretz
Khamenei's plan - Twitter
Editor's note: I commented to this vile post: "If the world had rid itself of Hitler when he talked like this we would not have had WWII."

Jerusalem Tense as Palestinians, Jews Demand Right to Temple Mount

Nov. 7, 2014 - Jewish people are demanding the right to pray at the Temple Mount, and Palestinians -- upset by a stalemate in peace negotiations -- are becoming increasingly violent. Jacob Perry, former head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency spoke about the issue:
“Jerusalem is among the most sensitive issues in the conflict and it matters to Muslims all over the world,” said “It is vital for both sides that anything involving the al-Aqsa mosque be handled in the most careful way possible.”
Source: NewsMax

Israeli leader urges calm in Jerusalem

Nov. 3, 2014 - After weeks of almost-daily conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem, Israel's Prime Minister said his government is determined to prevent an eruption of violence by maintaining the status quo for all the religions on the Temple Mount.
Since the days of Abraham, the Temple Mount has been the holiest site for our people and with this, the Temple Mount is also the most sensitive kilometer on earth," Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting.
Source: Fox

Trump: 'Never a greater enemy to Israel than Obama'

Nov. 2, 2014 - On the “Justice with Judge Jeanine” television program Donald Trump voiced strong disagreement with President Obama and his administration's “concessions” to Iran and its poor relations with Israel. Jeanine Pirro mentioned that Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador walked out ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s speech to the General Assembly, and some administration official had referred to Netanyahu as “chicken**.” Trump made this forceful reply:
“Probably, maybe from the beginning, there has never been a greater enemy to Israel than Barack Obama. It’s incredible the way he treats them, the way he’s speaking to them. I think he treats our known enemies much better.”
Source: WND

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