Bible in the News | A World United Against Israel

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	A World United Against Israel UNESCO votes against Israel, in response Israel turns to building settlements.
Saturday, November 05, 2011	www.bibleinthenews.com Audio & Print versions

**This weeks (Nov 12) Bible in the News, should be available, God willing, Saturday night. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) have, for the first time ever, received recognition by a UN body - its cultural arm, UNESCO has accepted it as a full fledged member even though they are not a recognized state. This is John Billington with you for this weeks edition of the Bible in the News.

The immediate result of this vote is that UNESCO has lost approximately 25% of its budget due to the fact that US law bound the Obama administration to pull funding. The legislation enacted back in the 1990's withholds funding for any U.N. body admitting the Palestinian territories as a full member.

In a very informative article written by Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post she writes the following:

"You have to hand it to the Palestinians.

They decided to abandon the peace process and seek international recognition of the “State of Palestine” – a state in a de facto state of war with Israel. And they are pursuing their goal relentlessly.

This week their efforts bore their first fruit with the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) vote to accept “Palestine” as a full state member.

It is not a coincidence that the PLO/PA decided to apply for membership for “Palestine” at UNESCO first. Since 1974, UNESCO has been an enthusiastic partner in the Palestinians’ bid to erase Jewish history, heritage and culture in the Land of Israel from the historical record.

In 1974, UNESCO voted to boycott Israel and to “withhold assistance from Israel in the fields of education, science and culture because of Israel’s persistent alteration of historic features in Jerusalem.”

UNESCO’s moves to deny Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the rest of historic Israel have continued unabated ever since. For instance, in 1989, UNESCO condemned “Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem,” claiming it was destroying the city through “acts of interference, destruction and transformation.”

In 1996, UNESCO held a symposium on Jerusalem at its Paris headquarters. No Jewish or Israeli groups were invited to participate.

Beginning in 1996, the Arab Wakf on the Temple Mount began systematically destroying artifacts of the Second Temple. The destruction was undertaken during illegal excavations under the Temple Mount carried out to construct an illegal, unlicensed mosque at Solomon’s Stables.

UNESCO never bothered to condemn this act. It was silent despite the fact that the Wakf’s actions constituted a grave breach of the very international laws related to antiquities and sacred sites that UNESCO is charter bound to protect. Similarly, UNESCO never condemned Palestinian desecration of Rachel’s Tomb, of Joesph’s Tomb or of any of the ancient synagogues in Gaza and Jericho which they razed to the ground.

The reason for UNESCO’s miscarriage of its responsibilities is clear. Far from fulfilling its mission of protecting world heritage sites, since 1974 UNESCO has been a partner in one of the greatest cultural crimes in human history – the Palestinian and pan- Arab attempt to wipe Jewish history in the Land of Israel off the historical record. And UNESCO’s crimes in this area are unending. In 2009 it designated Jerusalem a “capital of Arab culture.”

In 2010, it designated Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron as “Muslim mosques.” UNESCO’s campaign against Jewish history is not limited to Israel. In 1995, it passed a resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Despite requests from Israel, the resolution made no mention of the Holocaust.

In December 2010, UNESCO published a report on the history of science in the Arab world. Its report listed the great Jewish doctor and rabbinic scholar Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon – Maimonides – as a Muslim renamed “Moussa ben Maimoun.”

In light of UNESCO’s virulently anti-Jewish policies and actions, it is not surprising that it cooperated with the PLO/PA’s bid to achieve recognition of a state that is in a state of war with Israel.

It is also not surprising when we open our Bible's that an arm of the United Nations would be cheering at the chance to undermine Israel. Come to Zachariah 14: 1-3

"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.
Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle."

The battle spoken about here is the battle of Ezekiel 38 when it says in verse 15 & 16:
"And thou (Speaking of the northern confederacy of Europe and Russia) shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days..."

We can certainly expect to see from these verses that the character of the northern confederacy of nations is and will be fiercely anti Semitic.

Caroline Glick continued, "MORE SURPRISING than UNESCO’s behavior was the behavior of all but five EU member states.

Aside from the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden, all EU member states either voted in favor of the Palestinian membership application or abstained."

"...What the Europeans’ behavior at UNESCO indicates is that just as UNESCO is willing to undermine its mission to harm Israel, so the Europeans are willing to undermine the declared goals of their foreign policy if doing so will harm Israel."

The truth is that God Almighty is the one who has brought the Jews back to their homeland and it is He that the nations are setting themselves up against. It is for this reason that God says in the words that we read from Zachariah, "gathers the nations to battle" and in the words of Ezekiel, "puts hooks their jaws, and brings them forth" that He might judge them.

It was William Tyndale, the translator of the Bible into English in 1534 that wrote "... in the latter dayes, the people thorow avnbeleffe and lacke of feare of the judgement of the last daye, shalbe euen as Epicures, wholy geuen to the flesshe... And he sheweth also how terrible that day shalbe, and how sodenlye it shall come...(and) how at the last men shuld beleue nothinge ner feare God at all."

That is exactly what we see at UNESCO, the UN and most, if not all nations a complete disregard for any hand of God working with His people Israel.

Well what effect has this had on Israel? They cut funding to the PLO and put a rush on settlement building infuriating the entire world including the United States. God has said that His people would go back to the promised land and in particular onto the mountains of Israel, as we have spoken about before.

It is always the case that when there is pressure on the Jewish people they become stronger. From the Holocaust we got the State of Israel. The partition plan of 1947 gave the Jews about three disjointed pieces of land, but the Arabs attacked as soon as the State was declared. The result was a much larger and joined territory. In 1967, the Arabs surround Israel and threaten to push them into the sea, the result of the following war... Israel gains more territory including the mountains of Israel, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and more.

In a smaller way, it is the same story this week in the news. The United Nations united themselves against Israel and gave Israel the strength to build and thus further fulfill Gods promise to bring them back to the land of their fathers. I feel the following clip helps us to understand the mind of those building the settlements and the real battle that is going on here. This is Daniel Luria the Executive Director of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project.

Audio Clip

I find those words incredible, they get to heart of what the world hates about Israel and are even scared of. It is easy as we live our lives in different parts of the world to forget that Almighty God is working to bring about his purpose with the nation of Israel, and as you can see, make no mistake it is happening. Israel is destined to be a Holy Land and the Jews a separate people and a righteous nation. It will be the case again as it was in the past, these are words from Leviticus 20:22-26

"Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.
And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people...
...And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."

In today's world even stating the declared purpose of God with Israel makes you different and separates you. In fact, following the word of God and speaking the Truth will always have a separating effect, look at the words of Christ in John 15: 18-19

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

So this week as the world united in hatred against Israel and against the purpose of God, know that again the Bible is in the News. Thanks for joining us again and please come back next week for another edition of the Bible in the News.

Printed: Saturday, November 05, 2011

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