As bible believers, it is very clear that Israel must be at peace at the time of the Gogian invasion of the land we read of in Eze 38.

Ezekiel 38 is very clear about the situation in the land, in verse 11 we read:

“And thou [Gog] shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,”

Since the nation of Israel was born, there has never been a point where this could be said of the situation in the land. Israel was at constant threat of invasion up into the 1970s, and since then it has been plagued by terrorism. Over the last 20 years Israel has constructed a security barrier, partly wall, partly fence, around the west bank to prevent people bringing weapons that might be used to stage terror attacks in Israel. Settlements in the west bank are surrounded by walls and fences, and have guarded gates at their entrances – Israel is without question not a land without walls, bars or gates at this time.

Because of this we can expect peace to come to the land at some point before the battle of Armageddon.

Benjamin Netanyahu with his wife Sarah on election night in Tel-Aviv

Bringing peace to Israel is something that world leaders have for decades tried to achieve through a so called ‘land for peace’ formula, where Israel gives land to a Palestinian state in exchange for peace. The only substantial area of land that could be seriously be considered was the West Bank, an area of land Israel captured in 1967. Although this has been pushed for many years it has proved very controversial. Some 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, and any Palestinian state would insist on these people being removed. This would also be  a problem for Bible believers, because the West Bank is also the mountains of Israel, an area that is specifically mentioned as being inhabited by Israel in Ezekiel 38:8.

“After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou [Gog]shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.”

So we can see here that not only is Israel in peace, they are at peace on the mountains of Israel, or the West Bank. Because of this we can be sure that either no peace deal will involve Israel giving up the West Bank, and if it did then the West Bank must be returned to Israel at some point. Israel must be in peace and also hold the mountains of Israel.

Almost every US President has at some point attempted to bring peace to Israel, and in every case has suggested the basic framework of the West Bank becoming a Palestinian State. Wanting to bring peace to Israel is one area where President Trump is no exception to his predecessors, and is currently preparing to release the currently secret peace plan he has been working on over the last few years, perhaps as early as June of this year.

This week we have of course had the Israeli Election, where Netanyahu was neck and neck with an opponent from the new Blue & White party, Benny Gantz. Netanyahu pledged to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and also ruled out removing a single Israeli from the West Bank as part of any peace plan. This effectively was him ruling out any form of peace plan that included Israel giving up the West Bank.

For President Trump, who was no doubt looking on Israel’s election with interest in relation to his peace plan, these red lines could cause major problems. In an interview with the Israeli media outlet i24 News, Netanyahu was asked whether he could refuse the Trump peace plan.

He replied that he hadn’t seen it yet, but said clearly that he would of course if it went against his principles, of never removing any Israelis from the West Bank, giving up control of the West Bank or dividing Jerusalem.

Of course we haven’t seen Trump’s peace plan yet, but if it was the case that Trump was planning to require Israel to give up these areas, you can imagine him looking on in horror as Netanyahu put down these red lines and endorse his opponent, but instead, he continued to support Netanyahu and when he won he said that he saw Netanyahu’s victory as forwarding peace.

We don’t know whether Trump’s peace plan will be any more successful than those of his predecessors, but this week in the news we have seen Israel harden against giving up the areas that Bible prophecy requires them to hold. If Trump proposes Israel giving up these areas Netanyahu has vowed to refuse it, but as Trump has said he sees Netanyahu’s re-election as forwarding peace, perhaps we will see Trump suggest a peace plan that allows Israel to hold onto their settlements, and we may come to a situation where Israel is at peace and also upon the mountains of Israel, which we saw from Ezekiel 38 will be the situation before Armageddon.

This was Paul Barnes joining you for this week’s Bible in the News, tune in again next week for another edition of Bible in the News.