Sorry Virginia, the bible does not say there will ever be a State of Palestine and a State of Israel.
Sorry Virginia, the bible does not say there will ever be a State of Palestine and a State of Israel.
This is not meant to be a religious article, just an article using the bible as fact. I write this coming from a Christian Jews point of view.
As Palestinian protests continue around the world, people need to be educated on the answer to the question of: Who owns the land of Israel? A two-state solution has been offered seven times over the last 78 years and each time the Palestinians have turned it down! The Palestinians don't want their own state, they want to take over ALL of Israel, and they believe that over time their population will grow and give them the votes needed to take over the Israeli government.
Why is Jerusalem so important?
To Muslims it is where they have worshipped at the Al Aqsa mosque for the past 1000 years. Muslims consider it the third holiest place in Islam.
Where King Saul built the first Temple 3000 years ago; and where Abraham offered up Isaac 4000 years ago! Jerusalem is the city where God's Presence rested in the Holy of Holies within the Jewish Temple. It is where Abraham proved his obedience to God, willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac.
Jerusalem is the only city in the whole world which God calls "his very own." The historical record is clear: The Jewish People have lived in Jerusalem since King David purchased the threshing floor on Mount Moriah (now the Temple Mount) 3,000 years ago.
David told the owner of the land, “‘Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the LORD—give it to me at its full price ... I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.” (1 Chronicles 21:22–25)
Even after the Romans destroyed the second Jewish Temple in AD 70 and scattered the Jewish People into exile, a remnant of Jewish people for the past 3300 years has always lived in the Holy Land. Yet contradictory statements have left many people wondering, “Does the Land of Israel belong to the Jews or the Palestinians?”
As complex as the question may seem, there is a clear answer. The Bible tells us that the Land of Israel and its boundaries arise from a covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants—the Jewish People. In that Abrahamic Covenant, God describes land that was occupied by ten people groups which geographically extended from the “Wadi of Egypt” to the Euphrates as the inheritance of the Jewish People.
“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’” (Genesis 15:18– 21, see also Deuteronomy 1:8, Exodus 32:13 and 33:1)
On the heels of the Holocaust and a UN resolution—on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion who later became the first Prime Minister of Israel proclaimed, “the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.” Today, this official use of the term Eretz-Israel (literally, Land of Israel) is a reference to the covenant that the God of Israel made with Abraham and the descendants of Isaac and Jacob. It also underscores the fact that the new Jewish State was established on only a portion of the land that God promised the Jewish People, according to the expansive borders mentioned in Deuteronomy 1:6–8, Genesis 15:18–21, and Exodus 23:31.
In 1917, Lord Balfour of Britian made a declaration there should be a national home for the Jewish People in Palestine. Later, the area east of the Jordan was illegally separated, and Jews were forbidden to settle on about 77% of Palestine, while Arab settlement was unrestricted.
In 1946, Transjordan (Jordan) became an independent nation, and in 1947, the Jewish People were offered only about 18% of Palestine. Although the Jewish People accepted it, the Arabs rejected it because they did not want the Jewish people in the Holy Land.
The Origin of the Term “Palestine”
“I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.” (Exodus 23:31)
Under the British Mandate after World War I, the British controlled an area of the Ottoman Empire that had been divided into two sections—the land west of the Jordan River and the land east of the Jordan (Transjordan). The British called the land west of the Jordan River “Palestine.”
In fact, Jews who were born during the British Mandate have birth certificates stating that they were born in “Palestine.” Historically speaking, the term “Palestinian” applied to anyone living in the area, including Jewish people.
The historic reference to the term “Palestine” goes back as far as Herodotus, the 5th century BC Greek scholar who mentioned in The Histories a “district of Syria, called Palaistine.”
The land of the Phylistiim is also mentioned in the Septuagint, the second century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
Phylistiim means Philistia, the southwest portion of Israel inhabited by the Philistines. Although the ancient Philistines were neither Semites nor Arabs, but Indo-Europeans, the modern usage of the terms “Palestine” and “Palestinian” is linked with these Biblical names of Philistia and Philistine.
The term Palestine only came into use to identify the whole of Israel after AD 135 when the Roman Emperor Hadrian defeated the Jewish zealots in their second revolt (the Bar Kokhba Revolt). Hadrian imposed this term to humiliate the Jewish People by naming the Land after Israel’s enemy and to remove any connection between the Jewish People and their Promised Land.
Sadly, this led to the whole land being called Palestine even though the name was originally associated with only the small area of Philistia within the land of Canaan, which came to be Israel.
Political Battle over Judea, Samaria, and the West Bank in the State of Israel
“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24) Following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Israeli government continued to use the term Eretz Israel to maintain the historic link with God’s promises to His Chosen People Israel. In 1951 and 1952, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion twice highlighted that the Jewish state was created “in a part of our small country” and “in only a portion of the Land of Israel”
Tn official state documents (State of Israel, Government Yearbook, 5712, 5713). From the beginnings of the state, Israel's major right-wing party Herut (Freedom), was the political party that gave the greatest support to land policies linked to the Biblical promises.
Palestinians Make Unreasonable Demands
“I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners.” (Exodus 6:4) The Palestinians continue to make demands that are unacceptable to Israel. Those demands include the “pre-1967 borders” which would leave Israel not being able to adequately defend itself. Demands often include not allowing the Israel Defense Forces entering, monitoring, or controlling Areas A and C of the West Bank, as well as the release of hundreds of terrorist prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Beyond settlements and borders, the Arab world continues to demand that those who claim to be "Palestinian refugees” from the 1948 Israel Arab war, be allowed to move back to Israel. These refugees are now estimated to be in the millions and if allowed to gain Israeli citizenship, there would be more Arabs in Israel than Jews who could vote. That would lead to an Arab majority government and the Jewish State of Israel would become a Palestinian Islamic State.
The Arab world blames the Jews for winning the 1948 War as the Palestinians fled to Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon. However, they completely disregard how they expelled approximately one million Jews living in Arab lands in 1948, confiscating their possessions and property. These Jewish refugees have never been compensated for their losses. Palestinians in general seek to reclaim the entire land of Israel "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."
Yet, God has a different plan.
The only independent country that has ever existed west of the Jordan River is Israel, and Scripture calls Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) an everlasting possession:
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7–8)
Arabs assert that they are the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and are therefore entitled to the covenant land of Israel, but this is certainly not the case. Not all Arabs are descendants of Ishmael. Not all Palestinians are descendants of Ishmael. But even if they were, according to Scripture, Ishmael and Abraham's other sons are not the heirs of the covenant; Isaac and his descendants are the heirs.
“...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. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac.” (Genesis 17:19–21) "Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.
But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east." (Genesis 25:5–6) God gave Ishmael separate promises, and he was sent away from his brother Isaac so they would not share the same land (see Genesis 16:12; Genesis 25:12–18).
Today, in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, 7.3 million Jewish people live in the Land of Israel, and many thousands more arrive each year! This is such a wonderful proof that the Word of God and His promises are true and active, and being fulfilled even today, despite intense opposition.
The Messiah is soon returning to Jerusalem. He will come to His Chosen People Israel and reveal Himself to the whole world. "In this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.'" (Romans 11:26)