There have been near-daily stabbings by Palestinians of Israelis this month. Seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in the stabbings and some gun attacks. 

Victims have ranged from a child of 13 leaving a candy store through a 70 year old woman. The perpetrators have included children as young as 13 and 15.

In an incredible twist, Israel is being blamed for the stabbings. Haaretz reported,

Jordan's ambassador to the UN, Dina Kawar, said that Israel is responsible for the escalation in Jerusalem, adding that Israel must keep the status quo and desist from any actions to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque. "The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line which mustn't be crossed and cannot be defiled," she said. "We reserve all the diplomatic and legal options to defend the holy sites in Jerusalem."

The TIMES of Israel reported the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General criticizing Israel’s response in an emergency session

Zerihoun criticized what he called Israel’s “apparent heavy-handed” use of force in dealing with Palestinian violence and said Israeli actions raised “serious questions” about the proportionality of the response.

Israel’s audacious move to defend its citizens from knife wielding terrorists has sparked rebuke from the United Nations? This is the most obscene twist in events, yet all to common place in today’s world.

Israel’s recently installed Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, stated “Israelis are being stabbed, bombed, run over and stoned, yet this council remains silent.”

Sky News reported of Danny Danon’s appearance at the UN, holding up a picture of instructions on how to kill Jews, he said:

"We talk about a lot about incitement – here you see what Palestinian incitement looks like.

"The picture is being taught in middle schools, in high schools, in elementary schools.

"Instead of educating about peace and tolerance, the Palestinian leadership is brainwashing children with incitement and hate.

"Palestinian leaders have established an incubator to raise children as terrorists."

But instead of condemning Abbas supporting violence, the UN keeps giving his government international airtime.

Terrorism who murder Jews aren't the same as ISIS

Questioned by a BBC reporter, Israel’s Minister of Education Nephtali Bennett stated the following when challenged to open negotiations with Abbas:

“This guy is responsible for the wave of murder that’s going on in the streets of Israel. Just about 10 days ago he called upon Muslims to prevent Jews from going up to the Temple Mount with their ‘filthy feet’ ...so as long as he incites his own people to murder Jews, I don’t see what we can talk to him about. Just two days ago he accused Israel with a new blood libel, telling us that there is a young Palestinian who is innocent and dead. Well, he is neither innocent nor dead. We are talking about a terrorist who almost stabbed to death a Jewish boy of 13, who is now struggling for his life. The terrorist is now alive in a hospital only 10 minutes from here. This is the same Abbas with blood libels and incitement. First he needs to immediately cease his incitement and then we can talk to him.

When asked by the BBC  if he would talk to Abbas he stated,

“Would anyone talk to ISIS? Would anyone talk to bin Laden? We’ve got a murderous regime who is trying to kill as many Jews as possible right now…

The BBC reporter then interrupted,

“I think the Palestinians would say it is not the same equivalence.”

He responded,

“I think it is exactly the same. If you’d have people running around the streets of London stabbing dozens and hundreds of British citizens, you wouldn’t be talking to them. You’d be fighting them and defending yourselves, and that’s exactly what Israel is doing right now”. (Reported by Arutz Sheva)

He was then challenged that Israel was trying to change the status quo of the Temple Mount, he responded:

“There has been absolutely no change. Let me give you the facts: Over the past year, three and a half million Muslims visited the Temple Mount and only 12,000 Jews.  There’s a status quo. We’re not attempting to change it. This is yet another blatant lie of Abu Mazen.

What we see is that when Israel runs a holy place, we keep it safe, whereas the Palestinians, just last night, they burned the shrine in Nablus, the tomb of Joseph, they burned it. This is what happens when you hand them a place. Israel allows Christians, Muslims and Jews to visit the Temple Mount. “

Call for International Control in Jerusalem

The solution being suggested by the PA and supported by France is international intervention in Jerusalem.  The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has called for the Security Council to intervene and put an end to the Israeli acts of aggression in the occupied territories.

“We come to you today asking the Council to urgently intervene to end this aggression against our defenseless Palestinian people and against our shrines which are subjected to violations by the Israeli military occupation and by Israeli settlers and by extremists.”

In response, France is pushing for international forces to take control of the Temple Mount. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported:

France is pushing for the publication of a presidential statement on behalf of the UN Security Council that calls for the deployment of international observers to Jerusalem's holy sites, notably the Temple Mount, to ensure the status quo is maintained after recent violations, "Le Figaro" newspaper reported citing French diplomats.

All the rhetoric about Israel not protecting the “Holy Sites” comes as the  Washington Post reported acts of violence and vandalism by Palestinian youth,

Palestinians set fire to a Jewish holy shrine in the West Bank on Friday morning, and clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military flared throughout the day after the militant Islamist group Hamas called for a “day of rage.”

Israeli Deputy Ambassador David Roet rejected Palestinian calls for a protection force to be deployed on the Temple Mount.

"Let me be crystal clear - Israel will not agree to any international presence on the Temple Mount. Such a presence would be a change in the status quo."

The Vatican’s Plan to Internationalize Jerusalem

The seemingly insane idea of solving the problem by internationalizing Jerusalem has deep roots, and began with the Vatican.

Theodore Herzl visited Pope Pius X in 1904 when he was seeking Vatican endorsement of a Jewish state. The pope rejected his plea. He recorded the Pope’s words in his diary:

“We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”

When came to the custody of the “Holy Sites” the Hertzl records the Pope’s statement,

“I know, it is not pleasant to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with that. But to support the Jews in the acquisition of the Holy Places, that we cannot do.”

Not much has changed since that time. Cardinal Pacelli, who signed the concordat with Nazi Germany on behalf of the Vatican, became Pope Pius XII. He published a papal encyclical entitled, “In Multiplicibus Curis” on October 24th, 1948, in which he stated:

… the value that the Holy Places have for so great a part of the human family, will strengthen the conviction in the high quarters in which the problems of peace are discussed that it would be opportune to give Jerusalem and its outskirts, where are found so many and such precious memories of the life and death of the Savior, an international character which, in the present circumstances, seems to offer a better guarantee for the protection of the sanctuaries. It would also be necessary to assure, with international guarantees, both free access to Holy Places scattered throughout Palestine, and the freedom of worship and the respect of customs and religious traditions.

This was reiterated in his Easter encyclical entitled “Redemptoris Nostri Cruciatus” published

Pope Pius XII (Hiter's Pope) was the first
to call for the Internationalization of
Jerusalem

April 15, 1949, where he stated:

“…the time has come when Jerusalem and its vicinity…  should be accorded and legally guaranteed an "international" status, which in the present circumstances seems to offer the best and most satisfactory protection for these sacred monuments….

And encouraged Catholics to

"use every legitimate means to persuade the rulers of nations, and those whose duty it is to settle this important question, to accord to Jerusalem and its surroundings a juridical status whose stability under the present circumstances can only be adequately assured by a united effort of nations that love peace and respect the right of others.

Besides, it is of the utmost importance that due immunity and protection be guaranteed to all the Holy Places of Palestine not only in Jerusalem but also in the other cities and villages as well"

In an article entitled The Holy See and the Postwar Palestine Issue: The Internationalization of Jerusalem and the Protection of the Holy Places, reporter Silvio Farrari, wrote:

The attitude taken by the Vatican on the Palestine issue at the end of the Second World War was unequivocally and succinctly stated in the summer of 1949 by John Victor Perowne, the British plenipotentiary minister at the Holy See:

“The Vatican would have preferred, from the point of view of the fate of the holy places and of Catholic interests in Palestine generally, that neither Jews nor Arabs, but a third power, should have control in the Holy Land. Such a solution it well knew, however, was unattainable, and in the actual circumstances it preferred the Arabs to the Jews.”  (p23)

So we see this game has been afoot since before Israel was a nation.

France has taken up the Pope’s message, as Haaretz reported this week:

France's ambassador François Delattre said his country prepared a draft of a presidential statement by the Security Council, which stressed the need to safeguard Jerusalem's holy sites and maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount. He said the international community must exert pressure to resume serious peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Desire for the Holy Places

What is of great significance to Bible Students is the what Bible Prophecy indicates is the impetus which draws all nations against Israel in the time of the end.

Zechariah describes the invasion, and makes specific mention of Jerusalem as the target:

“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” (Zechariah 14:1–2)

This description of the terrible time coming for Israel is not without hope, for God indicates that it is at this time that he will visible intervene in the crisis as he did in Biblical times.

Joel indicates God’s controversy with the nations is what they do in Jerusalem:

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:1–2)

Here we read they “parted my land”. The Hebrew word is chalak which is defined as to divide, share, plunder, apportion, allot, to distribute. The goal of the nations is to portion out Jerusalem among themselves.

God has spoken about the perpetual hatred of the nations against Israel from time immemorial. Speaking of Mt. Seir, the capital of Edom, which typifies the anti-Israel spirit of the nations he states:

“And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:” (Ezekiel 35:3–5)

This perpetual hatred is mixed with a desire for the holy places of Israel:

“Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:” (Ezekiel 36:1–2)

The ancient High places are the places of worship in the land of Israel which is polluted with all kinds of churches and mosques. The nations want these for themselves, as they believe they are rightful owners of them, especially the Papacy (False Prophet), it’s supporter the European Union (the Beast), and the Russian (the Dragon). It will be the policies of these three that bring the nations against Jerusalem:

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet… which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.…  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:13–16)

Daniel clearly reveals the desire to plant themselves on the temple mount:

“And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” (Daniel 11:45)

Never mind their plans… God knows what is in their hearts:

“Now also many nations are gathered against thee, That say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, Neither understand they his counsel.” (Micah 4:11–12)

God isn’t going to allow the nations to succeed.  All those who come to Jerusalem to battle will be destroyed:

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, When they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:2–3)

He is going to resurrect the nation of Israel under the direction of Messiah, breathing his spirit word into them:

“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” (Ezekiel 37:9–10)

With that army God is going to destroy the nations who gather themselves to divide Jerusalem among themselves, like the threshing of wheat on the floor, and Israel will be the tool he uses to do this:

“For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. (His instruction to Israel) Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: For I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: And thou shalt beat in pieces many people: And I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.” (Micah 4:11–13)

May that day come soon when God will save his people, and the third temple will be built in Jerusalem – which will be a true “house of prayer for all people” – not some catholic or Muslim idolatrous abomination standing on God’s holy temple mount. As God told Solomon, when he prayed to God in dedicating the first temple on the temple mount:

“I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” (1 Kings 9:3)

We pray that day would soon come, when Israel will be rescued from the nations by their God, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. For the Bible in the News, this has been Jonathan Bowen.