UN says Israeli settlements are illegal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/un-panel-israeli-settlements-illegal_n_2589394.html

GENEVA -- The United Nations' first report on the broad policy of Israeli settlements concluded Thursday that the government's practice of "creeping annexation" clearly violates the human rights of Palestinians, and called for an immediate halt....

The Israeli government has persisted in settling Palestinian-occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank, "despite all the pertinent United Nations resolutions declaring that the existence of the settlements is illegal and calling for their cessation," the report said.

The settlements are "a mesh of construction and infrastructure leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," it concludes.

French judge Christine Chanet, who led the panel, said Israel never cooperated with the probe, which the council ordered last March. At a news conference, she called the report "a kind of weapon for the Palestinians" if they want to take up their grievances before The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

In December, after winning de facto U.N. recognition of statehood, the Palestinians accused Israel of planning more "war crimes" by expanding Jewish settlements.

Comment: This appeal to the UN is a natural consequence of the UN's recognition of Palestine as a "state" two months ago. As a "state," Palestine has the right to seek redress from the UN, which is the organization that established the Israeli state in 1947 with their Palestinian Resolution.

The US has supported a number of wars against countries who violate UN resolutions, including Iraq. The Israelis have violated more UN resolutions than everyone else put together, but so far the US has managed to side with them and prevent the UN from enforcing their resolutions.

Setting aside the issue of whose territory is whose, the divine law warns against double standards, which violate the law of equal weights and measures. The law is found in Leviticus 19:35 and 36, and it is preceded by a law mandating equal treatment of non-Israelites. Verse 34 says, "you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt."

The Israelis started down this path of Zionism in the early 1900's, and by the 1940's the terrorists of Zionism had taken over. If you don't believe me, read their own accounts:

The Revolt: the Story of the Irgun, by Menachem Begin

Summing Up, by Yitzhak Shamir

Warrior, by Ariel Sharon

If any Christian can justify his support for such things, I refer him to Jesus. Would Jesus lead such terrorist attacks? Would He approve poisoning water supplies, letter bombs, blowing up the King David Hotel, killing diplomats who were searching for a way to bring peace? No, these people were motivated by the same spirit of the Edomite Sicarii that were so prevalent in the terrorist activities of the first century against Rome. Jesus told His disciples to stay away from them. Jeremiah called them "evil figs." See my book, The Struggle for the Birthright.

The law of God demands equal weights and measures. Jesus applied this law in Matthew 7:2,

² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

This means the standard of measure by which we judge others will be the same standard by which God measures our own sin. That is the law of equal weights and measures. This applies to everyone, including Zionists, who have judged Palestinian "terrorists" by a different standard of measure than they used to measure their own terrorism. Israeli terrorism made them heroes in their own eyes, and they elected their chief terrorists to the position of Prime Minister. But when the Palestinians did it to them, they sought UN resolutions to condemn this reverse terrorism.

Which is worse, Jewish terrorism or Palestinian terrorism?

In the end, the Israeli state was established under the authority of the UN and its resolution. The same UN has now established the Palestinian state. The Israelis used the UN to justify its own political status, but now they refuse to acknowledge the status of the Palestinian state. That is a double standard. They want the benefits when UN resolutions favor them, but not when they favor Palestinians.

This double standard puts them at odds with the law of God, and ensures that in the end God will bring judgment upon them for their double standard. In fact, when God takes a case, He judges all parties by the same law. That is why Isaiah 29 prophesies that in the end, NO ONE will inherit that land. In Isaiah 29:2-4 God says to Jerusalem (under the prophetic name of Ariel),

² I will bring distress to Ariel... ³ and I will camp against you, encircling you, and I will set up siegeworks against you, and I will raise up battle towers against you. ⁴ Then you shall be brought low....

In other words, God will side with those fighting against Jerusalem in order to destroy the city, because the city's "enemies" have taken over the city. God defines His "enemies" as those who are in rebellion against God. In Leviticus 26:40-42 God prophesies that He would act with "hostility" against Israel if they acted with hostility against Him (Jesus Christ). Isaiah 63:10 says of Israel,

¹⁰ But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore, He turned Himself to become their ENEMY."

The Israeli state today remains in a state of hostility against Jesus Christ. Therefore, Isaiah's prophecy means that when the Israeli's took Jerusalem in 1967, the city became occupied by Christ's "enemies." These are the "enemies" of Isaiah's prophecy--not the Palestinians. They are the enemies of God, of Christ, and of the city itself. The prophet says in verse 5,

⁵ But the multitude of your [Jerusalem's] enemies shall become like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; and it shall happen instantly, suddenly. ⁶ From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flames of a consuming fire.

These are all the ingredients of a nuclear exposion. But those laying siege to Jerusalem, whose desire is to take back the city and inhabit it, will find themselves disappointed, because they will not get it either. The next verses tell us that it will be like a dream, where a man is hungry and is eating in his dream, but when he awakes, he finds himself still hungry; or a man who is thirsty in his dream and is drinking water, but when he awakes, he finds himself still thirsty. So also will it be for "the multitude of those who wage war against thee" [Jerusalem].

Even though God said that He sided with those laying siege to Jerusalem, in the end, no one will inhabit the city. It appears that the city will have too much nuclear fallout to be inhabited ever again.

That city is called "Hagar" in Galatians 4:25. In verse 30 Paul refers to Genesis 21:9 saying, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son." Hagar, the bondwoman, is Jerusalem, and she must be cast out in order to establish Sarah as the capital of the Kingdom in the Age to come. Sarah is the New Jerusalem, and as believers in Christ, we are her children (Galatians 4:26).

Unfortunately, many Christians now believe that Hagar is the chosen mother, "proven," they say, by the UN's resolution in 1947. They think that God has identified Jerusalem as the chosen "mother" of the Kingdom. They do not understand the mind of God in this, because they do not know the whole story and have also misidentified some of the main characters in prophecy. Neither have they been taught the law of God, so they do not know the standard by which God judges the nations.

The full story is told in my book, The Struggle for the Birthright. It is too long to give a complete study here, or to answer all questions and objections. But it is something that is required reading, if anyone wants to understand the current conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. When this whole Zionist project blows up their faces, many Christians will be in a state of shock. It is better to learn the situation now than to go through such shock later. It will be a sad day for many people when Hagar is cast out, especially for Christian Zionists who consider her to be their "mother."

In that day Christians themselves will have to decide whether Hagar or Sarah is their mother. If they remain loyal to Hagar, they will be cast out with her, for the son of Hagar is Ishmael. If they are able to see Sarah as their mother, they will have opportunity to remain in the household of faith (Abraham) that will inherit the Kingdom.