DIGRESSION
7: Hamas And The Palestinian Movement In
Bible Prophecy
I am aware
that there are various views in our community as to the identity
of Israel’s invader
of the last days. Whoever it is, it surely cannot be that the
Arab world surrounding Israel
will not eagerly join in or be a major part of the attack. The
real aims and intentions of Hamas / the P.L.O. are perhaps not
so widely known because much of their literature remains in
Arabic only. I have taken some time to analyze original sources
of Arab rhetoric, and the similarity of wording and intention
between them and Bible prophecy is astounding. I am left with
no doubt that what is happening in the Middle East right now,
especially relating to the P.L.O., is a most definite sign that
the Lord’s coming is near. I am grateful to newly baptized
converts in Jordan
and Lebanon for opening
my eyes to many of the following observations. The
Hebrew word hamas [basically meaning 'physical violence
arising from wicked plans'] is quite common in Scripture, and
the usages speak of how God is provoked by hamas to
bring judgment upon the enemies of His people (Gen. 6:11-13;
Mic. 6:12; Zeph. 1:9) and also to intervene in order to save
His people (Ps. 18:49; Ps. 72:14). How amazingly appropriate
that an organization actually called hamas has arisen
in these last days to do violence to Israel! If Biblical history
means anything to us, clearly enough God's intervention in appropriate
judgment and salvation cannot be far off. Note how Hagar's persecution
of Sarah- typical of the Arab-Jew conflict- is described as
her hamas (Gen. 16:5).
Psalm 83
“For,
lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted
up the head”
The revival of Arab nationalism and its organization in the
P.L.O. They lift up / exalt the rosh, the head-
they set up an individual leader over them. This could be “Gog…the
chief prince” of Ezek. 38, “the king of the north” of Daniel, “the
man of sin” of 2 Thess. 2, and all the other references to a latter
day Nebuchadnezzar / antiChrist figure.
They have taken crafty counsel against thy people,
and consulted against thy hidden ones.
The intentions of the P.L.O. are “crafty” in that there
is the impression given that they seek co-existence with
Israel;
they are plotting the destruction of
Israel and
the Jews under the guise of humanism and peaceful intentions. But
the Arab Confederacy seeks to destroy
Israel,
as is evident:
“The
Palestinian Covenant declares as its central themes a total repudiation
of the existence of Israel…the claim that Israel should not exist
is implied in almost half of its 33 articles…the demand for the demise
of Israel becomes a matter of inevitable necessity” (1)
“Israelis
are barely human creatures who may be tolerated in the Palestinian
state as individuals, with their numbers reduced” (2)
“The
question of how to reduce the number of Jews in a Palestinian state…is
highlighted by the use of murderous terms against the Israelis” (3)
Article
8 of the Palestinian Covenant: “The conflicts among the Palestinian
national forces are secondary, and should be ended for the sake of
the basic conflict that exists between Zionism…and the Arab people.”
Article
9: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.
It is the overall strategy.”
Yet
a willfully naïve world overlooks these statements because they prefer
to believe the “crafty counsel” of the Arabs- that they seek for peaceful
co-existence with the Jews in Israel.
They have said, Come, and let us
cut them off from being a nation; that the name of
Israel may be no more in remembrance.
The
Arabs argue that Israel
/ the Jews are not a people:
“Israeli
Jews…can only be nationals of (other) states, where nationality is
not Jewish. The demand for the liquidation of Israel thus also stems
directly as a necessary conclusion from the definition that the Jews
are (already) not a nation…since the state of Israel is not based
on true nationalism, it is often described in Arabic as an ‘artificial
entity’…the theory that the Jews do not constitute a nation is also
recited for the claim of exclusive Arab nationality of the Palestinian
state” (4)
“Victory
for the Arabs is possible only in the liquidation of
Israel;
anything else is capitulation.”
“The
Jews are not a nation and thus on principle do not deserve to have
a state of their own…there is no atrocity that cannot be justified
in order to bring about the liquidation of
Israel”
(5)
The
desire to “cut them off from being a nation” runs counter to God’s
clear statement in Gen. 25:23: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two
manner of people…”. Note that they were not
to be of a different ethnicity, as both Jews and Arabs often claim
[for they were from the same parents], but different types of people.
For they have consulted together
with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
The
Arabs will unite themselves against Israel.
The ‘Palestinian National Covenant’ uses the Arab word Qawmi for
‘National’ – i.e. pan-Arab. Note the RV of Ps. 83:5: “Against thee
do they make a covenant”.
“The
Palestinian National Authority will strive to achieve a union of the
confrontation countries [i.e. “all nations around about” Israel- D.H.]…or
a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity” – Political Programs
of the P.L.O., Article 8.
“The
Palestinian National Council calls upon the Arab nation [singular!]
to shoulder its pan-Arab responsibilities
and to pool all its energies to confront …Zionism” – Political Resolution
of the 13th Palestinian National Council, Article 4.
The
Palestinian Liberation Army is under an “inter-Arab High Command”
(6)
“The
Palestinians will have three mottoes: national unity, pan-Arab mobilization,
and liberation” (Are these the three unclean spirits of Rev. 16 that
gather the nations around Israel
to battle?) – Political Resolution of the 13th Palestinian
National Council, Article 11.
“Nasser
used to argue that Arab unity is a pre-requisite for …enabling the
initiation of an all-out war against
Israel”
(7)
“The
Arab ‘nation’ is made up of ‘peoples’ and the (one) Arab homeland
comprises the national homeland of these peoples…the relationship
of the people and the individual to the overall Arab homeland and
nation is called in modern Arabic Qamwiyya (nationalism)…like
the trunk of a tree that branches off into offshoots of local patriotism…the
splitting up of the Arab region into separate states carved out by
the colonial powers. However, once Arab unity is achieved and the
frontiers wiped out…”
(8)
“As
for the Egyptians, the Iraqis…they are nothing but the peoples &
branches of one nation, the Arab nation” (9)
“Colonialism
shattered the unity of our Arab nation and the unity of our Arab homeland…but
this has not prevented the masses…from feeling they are one people”
-Resolution of Palestinian National Council, 1971 (10)
The
intention is to create a single nation which is home for all the Arab
peoples. This may include not only Palestine
but all of the land promised to Abraham. “Palestine
is inseparable from the Arab homeland” (11)
.
“King
Hussein’s plan for the establishment of a so-called United
Arab Kingdom”
(12)
“This
crisis has captivated the whole Arab nation throughout the greater
Arab homeland” (13) – i.e. the earth/land promised to Abraham.
It could well be that the entire area promised to Abraham is briefly
confederated into one Arab super state once
Israel is
over-run. In this sense all the prophecies about the eretz (the
land / earth) being dominated by Israel’s
enemies would then come true.
Not
only will the Arabs unite amongst themselves but they will unite many
other world forces in their anti-semitism. This must be, for if there
is to be a time of trouble for Jacob such as never was, the millions
of Jews living in North America
are going to have to be persecuted even worse than they were by Nazi
Germany. Things are going to have to change- dramatically, and in
a very short time. The god of this world is humanism, and it seems
that all
the world will be united
by the Arabs against Israel
under this guise.
“The
enemy of humanity’ is a phrase found in
Arab writing to designate Israel...
Such a description is designed
to mobilize support from all peoples, because Zionism is portrayed
as an imperialist base that threatens them too” (14).
Article
16 of the P.L.O. National Covenant: “The liberation of Palestine,
from a spiritual point of view, will provide the Holy Land with an
atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard
the country’s religious sanctuaries…. accordingly, the people of Palestine
look to all spiritual forces in the world for support.”
Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera,
as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
In these incidents, the Arab invaders
destroyed themselves. There is plenty of evidence that the Arab solidarity
against Israel is very shallow; they are deeply
fractured, and a victory against the Jews could well bring out those
differences immediately, in a very bitter and self-destructive way.
This final destruction is likely that spoken of in Revelation, where
after a brief period of unity against God’s people,
“The horns hate the whore”- Babylon
/ Iraq?
The final phase of domination of the land
of Israel foretold in
Daniel 2 was by a confederacy of “iron and clay”, nations that don’t
mix together well; although in the context of dominating
Israel,
they are united. Particularly the Palestinians and other Arabs are
mutually suspicious of each other; and there is ample tension between
Iraq
[latter day Babylon]
and its Arab neighbours.
“Expressions
of suspicion toward the Arab states abound in Palestinian writings.
They contain sharp criticism of discrimination against the Palestinians
in the form of restrictive decrees in employment and travel. Expressions of hatred can even be found against the
Arab states” (15).
“The
P.L.O. will retaliate against the Arab states…if they take a line
of policy which the P.L.O. regards as inimical to it’s cause” (16)
.
“Arab
governments (are) suspicious of the plan to organize the Palestinians
into the Palestinian entity” (17).
Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
Clearly enough, the specific focus
of the P.L.O. has been on taking control of Jerusalem’s holy places. This is evident in
all of Arafat’s speeches. The P.L.O. refuses to cease hostilities
against God’s people until they are in possession of
Jerusalem.
It
seems that the ideal of the P.L.O. is to establish a fake Kingdom
of God in the land promised to Abraham, with Jerusalem as the capital,
a new ‘temple’ built there, and some antiChrist figure such as Arafat
or Saddam ruling there. Their dream is of a land of plenty and true
tolerance and equality, glorifying all the principles of humanism-
and yet excluding God’s people. All Arabs world-wide would be encouraged
to return and live in this Arab superstate, mimicing how the true
seed of Abraham will be gathered home in the last days. The P.L.O.
plan to send the Jews out of the land into captivity- Saddam Hussein
once said just the same. The Babylonian captivity will be re-enacted,
and then in a ‘second exodus’ the Jews will return and perhaps build
the temple which they were instructed to build in Ez. 40-48. This
expulsion of the Jews from the land is foretold in Dt. 28- where disobedient
Israel are to be taken into Egypt again by ships, something which
has never yet occurred; and also in Zech. 14, where in the last days
Jerusalem is to be captured by her enemies and half the city go off
into captivity. And then, the Lord returns to the Mount of Olives
from which He left.
“Only
Jews who undertake to be loyal to the Palestinian state shall be recognized…the
recurring motif in Palestinian literature which insists that the Jews
who would be allowed (to remain) should relinquish Zionism”
(18)
“Peace
in the land of Palestine and the neighboring countries is our heart’s
desire. Above all, a precondition
for this is the liberation of Palestine” (19).
“The
right to return includes the right to get back all former Arab property,
the return of which will cause the mass eviction of Israelis from
Jaffa, Nazareth, etc.” (20)
“The
establishment of the Palestinian state is bound up with a mass evacuation
of Jews from their homes, and they will be thus forced to emigrate”
(21)
Shuqairy,
founder of the P.L.O., often made the proposal to send the Jews back
to their countries of origin. Naji Alush repeats the proposal and
asks, “Why not ask the U.N. to finance this
plan?” (22) . If accepted,
this would unite “all nations” against Israel and her Messiah.
Article
11 of the Constitution of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party read: “Whoever emigrated
to the Arab homeland (Palestine)
with a colonialist aim shall be expelled”.
Naji
Alush defines “the stand of the Arab national movement on Palestine
concerning the Jews” as being that the same number of Jews that were
in Palestine before 1914 (i.e. 20,000) should be allowed to remain,
and own the 1% of the land they then owned – and the rest be extradited
(23).
“Permission
to stay in Palestine
should be granted to the Jews who shall declare that they are giving
up the idea of the Jewish state” (24) .
It
is significant that the Arabs demand that the minority of Jews who
they would let remain become ‘Arabs’. “Such a state…should be explicitly
& emphatically an Arab state with a minority of Jews, who from
a national viewpoint, would become Arabs” (25). It could
be that this meant they accepted Islam. In this case we would have
an analogous situation to that in countless historical types of the
last days: Israel
accept the idols of the surrounding Arab world and are judged because
of it.
Notes
(1)
Y. Harkabi, The Palestinian Covenant
And It’s Meaning (Totowa, N.J: Valentine, Mitchell & Co.,
1979) p.11
(2)
Harkabi op cit. p. 13
(3)
Harkabi op cit. p. 48
(4)
Naji Alush, The Road To Palestine
p.141
(5)
Harkabi op cit. p. 12
(6)
Harkabi op cit. p. 62
(7)
Harkabi op cit. p. 70
(8)
Harkabi op cit. p. 31
(9)
Sati
Al-Husri, Arabism First, (Beirut
Lebanon:
P.L.O. Research Centre) p. 13.
(10)
As
recorded in Anne Zahlan, International Documents
on Palestine
(Beirut, Lebanon: Institute for Palestine
Studies, 1974) p. 398.
(11)
Harkabi op cit. p. 99
(12)
Harkabi op cit. p. 135
(13)
Harkabi op cit. p. 136
(14)
Harkabi op cit. p. 90
(15)
Harkabi op cit. p. 72
(16)
Harkabi op cit. p. 96
(17)
Harkabi op cit. p. 10
(18)
Harkabi op cit. p. 46
(19)
Fayez
Sayegh, A Handful of Mist (Beirut,
Lebanon:
P.L.O. Research Centre) p.19.
(20)
Harkabi op cit. p. 157
(21)
Harkabi op cit. p. 56
(22)
Naji Alush op cit. p. 219
(23)
Naji Alush, The Palestinian National
Movement (Beirut, Lebanon, 1969) p. 170
(24)
Niqula
Al-Dor (one time member of the P.L.O. Executive), Thus Lost and
Thus to be Returned (Beirut,
Lebanon:
Al-Hawadith Press).
(25)
Harkabi op cit. p.52
