Page 87 - Signs of the End

THE SIGNS OF THE END 51

The media have practically acted as Arab agents in the situa­
tion between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. When there was
terrorism, Israel, the invariable victim, was blamed. Despite con­
stant evidence of the unreliability and dictatorship-nature of the
PA, the Israeli government, a democracy, was the one constantly
criticized. PA chairman, Yasser Arafat, an international terrorist of
long repute, was constantly celebrated as a statesman. We will say
more about the media and its apparently anti-Semitic position
below.

Arafat repeatedly threatened that he would announce
Palestinian statehood at the conclusion of the five-year process. He
has delayed doing so to date, with the defeat of Netanyahu and the
election of Ehud Barak, and time will tell how his administration
will handle these matters. As believers in the Word, we are sup­
portive of Israel's ownership and possession of the Promised Land.
However, we know that events are moving toward the
Gog/M agog war prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39, and the subsequent
Tribulation. Jerusalem is sadly destined to be "trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke
21:24).

Great issues are at stake, including the fate of the West Bank
and the Golan Heights. We can only pray for the peace of
Jerusalem, be supportive of Israel and the true believers there
(Jewish and Arab) and await the prophetic outcome of these
momentous events.

PROMISED LAND

Israel was thrown into political turmoil in the mid-90s when
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin endeavored to push forward the
withdrawal from the West Bank to the PLO, and his subsequent
assassination by a young Jewish man who, with many of the
Orthodox Settlers in Yesha, believed that Rabin was violating the
sanctity of the Promised Land. In this turmoil came the election of
a new Prime Minister, highlighted by the fact that Israel had
changed its election rules so that the Prime Minister was now elect­
ed by a majority vote of the people rather than by a majority of the
members of the Knesset.