MIDDLE EAST UPDATE

Lance Lambert

June 2001

This is Lance Lambert speaking, and this is my Middle East Update for June 2001. In this update I will seek to survey the last three months, and then I would like to say something about our present situation and finally the immediate outlook and matters for prayer.

As you know, I do not normally say anything about myself, personally. In my last two tapes, I have just mentioned my being unwell in the last year. I would like to thank all of you who have prayed for my health and well being. I am most thankful to you and to the Lord. At present I am no better, but I am trusting the Lord. I will go to three clinics, in July, in the United States and I'm trusting that the Lord will put His finger on the problem.

I would like to turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel 13:8-16. I'm reading in the New King James: "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,' says the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD. Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace; and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar; say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down. Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, 'Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?' Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, 'The wall is no more, nor those who plastered it, that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,' says the Lord GOD."

I will add to that two other similar passages in the prophecy of Jeremiah 6:14. "They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace."  Again in chapter 8:11, "For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace."

To this I would like to add the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Luke chapter 21:25-28. "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."
The last book of the Bible, Revelation 11:15-19. "Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!' And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: 'We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.' Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail."

Finally I want to go back to the Old Covenant, to the prophecy of Isaiah 2:2-5. "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the LORD."

After all the division and confusion during Ehud Barak's time as Prime Minister, it has been refreshing to have a strong lead given by Ariel Sharon in our present situation. This has in turn produced a very different attitude in the nation at large. The Unity Government has thus far been united, while facing what will be looked upon in future years as one of the most difficult eras in Israel's modern history. The healing of the deep and passionately felt divisions in the nations is no small miracle, and one may say, no small tribute to Sharon's leadership.

For the last nine months the so-called Al Aqsa Intifada has raged unabated. Al Aqsa is the mosque standing upon the place of Solomon's porches, where the Church was born, and intifada in Arabic means uprising. It was called such because of Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September. To call this intifada the Al Aqsa Intifada is a misnomer. It was planned, in fact, after the failed United States-brokered Camp David July Summit last year. At this summit, between Arafat and Barak, Clinton and Barak offered Arafat an independent Palestinian state in ninety-two percent of the "West Bank" and Gaza, the Arab areas of Jerusalem as their capital, and shared sovereignty over the Temple Mount (although in fact the shared sovereignty was more a sovereignty for Islam than for Judaism). The CIA has established that the Intifada was planned by Arafat and his aides immediately following his rejection of Ehud Barak's offer in July. The aim was, by increasing violence, to win one hundred percent of the Palestinian demands. Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount was the excuse for launching it, and not the reason. His visit "tore the mask off" the so-called peaceful intentions of the Palestinian Authority, and revealed its demonized heart and its true intentions.

Sharon was elected Prime Minister by one of the largest electoral landslides in European and Western nation democracies. He immediately faced a basically hostile world press, hostile to Israel and hostile particularly to Sharon. The violence has grown in force and substance from children manipulated to throw rocks and stones, to Palestinian police, to Arafat's own Force 17 - his bodyguard and to the Tanzim, using guns provided by Israel under the Oslo Agreement. Then it went on to mortars, bombs and suicide bombers. At one point the Israel Defense Forces detected and arrested a Lebanese fishing vessel with 600 tons, believe it or not, of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, and shoulder-launched missiles. During the interrogation of the Lebanese professional smugglers who had taken over the fishing boat, it was revealed that three boats had managed to get to the Gaza coast without detection and to have unloaded their weapons. Because of the kind of weapons seized on the fourth boat - the one detected and confiscated - this has caused not a little concern in Israel's military leadership. Ninety-five percent of the violence has not been initiated by Israel in these last nine months - only five percent - and that in retaliatory or pre-emptive strikes. In fact it has been an on-going nightmare for the Israel Defense Forces, the Border Police and the general police to have faced and handled. I must say that they have done very well, considering the circumstances.

Every time Israel has retaliated, the nations - particularly the European nations, Russia and the United States - have spoken of excessive force being used by Israel in its response. The hypocrisy of the nations leaves one breathless. For instance no one ever spoke of excessive force when the United States bombed Panama, and on another occasion the little island of Granada off the US coast. Nor when the United States and the United Kingdom bombed Libya as a result of Libyan terrorism in which Gadaffi's child was killed. No one spoke of excessive force when NATO bombed Serbia with cluster bombs, bombing a maternity hospital, among other civilian institutions, and rocketed the country with uranium-coated missiles. Nor has anyone spoken of excessive force, at least in Russia - certainly elsewhere - when Russia bombed and shelled, mercilessly the Chechnians, leaving Grosny a macabre ruin, a kind of Frankenstein film scene. You must have all seen it on your television. I'm not speaking about the right or the wrong in all of this. There may well have been just cause for using such force. But I am pointing out that the countries that have spoken about excessive force, have themselves used such excessive force. If you judged them by the same standards they apply to Israel, they have used excessive force.

The past three months have been a very difficult three months. It would have been for any government. In my estimation we should be very thankful to Ehud Barak, for he proved beyond any shadow of doubt, that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority were not interested in negotiations, but only capitulation in full on the part of Israel to their demands. He went far beyond what any other Israeli leader has been prepared to offer in the quest for peace, and was rebuffed. And thus began the Intifada.

The result has been not only the election of Sharon and the general unity of the nation, from right to left, but the disarray and discomfiture of the left wing. On every side one hears erstwhile "Peace Now" members, not merely disillusioned, but calling for strong reaction and response by the government to the Intifada. It seems that no one wants, any more, to hear Yossi Beilin, or Uri Severe or Ben Ami.
In fact many of those who were followers of "Peace Now" - even activists within it - are calling for much sterner measures, even war. Personally I believe that this is a most significant answer to prayer. Israel is on the front line of a battle between the living God of Israel and the powers of darkness, between light and darkness. She is for the most part quite unaware of it. I personally am for real peace, the peace of God - as most of you are - for the Prince of Peace. For the peace that comes when sin is forgiven, and for a genuine knowledge of the Lord, for peace between peoples and nations, based on truth and justice. But this other peace is merely a façade, a front for liquidation, for destruction, for the fulfillment of the designs of the prince of darkness, to negate the purpose and Word of God. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel talk of "peace, peace, where there is no peace." There were in their day, false prophets who spoke continuously of peace, and so today we also have those who speak continuously of peace. They speak of being sons of peace, of being peacemakers, and are as blind as bats without, I might even say, the organic radar system that bats have when it comes to the real facts. They seem to be unable to sense what lies behind the façade, the intention to settle, finally, the Jewish question and liquidate them. Anti-Semitism is by no means dead, it is very much alive because it is spawned and energized by Satan, and indeed in the last decade is making a very big comeback. In the first instance, anti-Semitism is not to do with flesh and blood, but with spiritual powers and principalities. They influence, they energize human beings and in many cases possess them.

There are two divinely instituted and ordained witnesses in the world today, to the faithfulness of God, to His being, to His presence - not only in history but also in the contemporary scene - to His Messiah, to His purpose and work. One is the true Church of God, born of God, indwelt by God, saved by the grace of God, empowered by the Spirit of God. The second is Israel, recreated by God, preserved by God, the fulfillment of His prophetic word and purpose, awaiting His salvation. These two are the witnesses to the unfailing mercy of God, to the absolute truth of His word, to the salvation of God alone, the salvation of this world and to the coming kingdom of God. 
Above all these two are witnesses to the Messiah of God. Israel is as yet unsaved, not knowing her Messiah, but she has been and is preserved and kept for the final divine appointment. When that time comes, then her Messiah will wrestle with her as Jacob did with the angel of the Lord, and she will be changed from Jacob into Israel in truth. As with Jacob, the God of Jacob had arranged all the circumstances that led to his disillusionment and desperation, to the place where he saw the face of God and lived. But make no mistake here, even as Jacob, she is a divinely instituted and ordained witness to the Living God and His Messiah. She will be even more so when she recognizes Him and is saved by His finished work. When we see this we understand the enormous, undying battle over the Jewish people, which to many Christians is an enigma. Furthermore this conflict includes both the true Church and Israel, for what Satan seeks is not merely the liquidation of Israel, but also of the true Church. It makes no difference to this truth whether Christians understand it or not, whether Jews understand it or not. As far as the powers of darkness are concerned, they belong together and need to be destroyed. Thus in the end day, Israel and the true living Church will suffer together and, by the grace of God alone, will triumph together.

But to return to the physical condition and situation at present in Israel: in the last fourteen days, ever since the unilateral cease-fire declared by Ariel Sharon and his government, there has been nothing but violence, escalating violence with some 100 casualties at least. There have been five Israelis murdered to date by gunfire while driving in their cars on the roads near their homes. One Israeli building contractor murdered, his burnt and mutilated body found near Tulkarm. Four suicide car bombs, that is four bombs that actually went off, the others were blown up, mercifully, before they got there. One in Hadera, one in Netanya, (that was meant for a school), two in Jerusalem, and one bomb, for the first time ever, closed the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway for over two hours. There were also many shootings and mortar shellings.

This is apart from damage to homes in Jerusalem's southern suburb of Gilo, with some residents injured by gunfire. Even Malha, near the shopping center called the Canyon, and the Teddy Kollek sports stadium, for the first time came under fire. This is the capital of Israel. The present violence came to a head when on Friday night, on Shabbat, on Tel Aviv's sea front, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a huge group of young people waiting to get into a disco. It was the worst terrorist incident in five years, resulting in 21 deaths to date and over 100 injured. Nearly all the dead were teenagers, many only 14, 15 or 16. Fifteen of the dead were girls. To date there is still one critically wounded, six seriously wounded and 47 still in hospital. Many of these young people have lost hands, arms, legs and eyes. Nearly all of them were recent Russian immigrants. Sharon immediately gave Arafat and the Palestinian Authority an ultimatum. Arafat had to order a cease-fire and completely comply with all the terms of the Oslo Agreement, that is, re-arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad head members who had been in prison for murder, and had been released last October. Gather up all prescribed weapons, stop the unbelievable and continuous incitement on Palestinian radio and television, and in the schools to murder all Jews, and stop all violence. Or, he said, Israel would act firmly.

At first Arafat was given hours to reply. He responded only when the German Foreign Minister and the Norwegian United Nations Representative warned him that Israel was about to destroy totally the whole Palestinian Authority infrastructure. They also said that the sixty million US dollars about to be given to the Palestinian Authority by the European Union might be withheld. 

It is interesting to me that I understand that Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, spoke to Arafat in the most incredibly strong and terse terms. He had in fact jogged past the Dolphinarium and sea front at Tel Aviv just an hour before the suicide bomber blew himself and all these young people up, and was staying in a hotel just a few hundred meters away. I don't expect Terje Larsen to have said very much, because in my estimation - I may be wrong - he has always been in the pocket of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. But Joschka Fischer, it may be said to his credit, actually went to town on Arafat, and the result was that Arafat realized that he had overplayed his hand and for the first time he ordered a complete cease-fire. In response to Arafat's ordering that cease-fire, on the part of the Palestinians, Israel has given him more time. Ben Eliezer, Israel's Defense Minister said, we are not interested in words, but in deeds. We shall wait to see if the Palestinian Authority takes action. 

Now the action that the Israeli side expects to take is complete and total. Of course it is difficult, I mean when poor King Hussein, who died a year or so ago, faced Arafat in the sixties and seventies, Arafat actually agreed to some 16 or more cease-fires, and he never kept one of them. It was precisely the same when the Lebanese government confronted Arafat; he made many promises and he never kept them. So Israel is waiting for action to be taken. Thus the situation here in Israel is tense and critical. All depends on whether Arafat and the Palestinian Authority translate their words into concrete and visible action. Interestingly there has been a marked reduction of incidents. Now they are not over - there was a roadside bomb safely detonated by our people. Yesterday there was a five-hour gun battle in which a number of Palestinians were injured and two Israeli soldiers were injured. Palestinian police were involved in that shooting, and there have been a number of shootings elsewhere. It is understood that Arafat will have some problems. Last night Fatah, the movement that Arafat himself heads, and the main faction in the PLO, with Hamas, declared a cease-fire from 12 o'clock, but Islamic Jihad the other Islamic fundamentalist group that was responsible for many bombings and the PLFP who are centered in Damascus, both rejected the cease-fire. One cannot help feeling that this is part of a tactic. They can go on doing it, Arafat is then able to say that he has nothing whatsoever to do with it - he called a cease-fire, these are acting on their own orders. However, Israel is going to see if Arafat re-arrests the Islamic Jihad members and PLFP members. So you can see that we are in a very tense situation at present.

There is in Israel enormous and widespread anger over what has happened, and the government is in a particularly difficult position. It's won worldwide sympathy and understanding for its restraint in the last 14 days, all of which I might add, could disappear overnight knowing the fickleness of the worldwide media and of world governments. But at the same time it faces an increasingly restive Israeli public, in fact a public that is getting more and more angry. There were serious incidents in Tel Aviv after the suicide bombing, when a mosque was surrounded and stoned, and when the police had to move in and arrest 20 Israelis when they went into Jaffa and sought to start a fight with Arab residents. There are more and more calls - coming in some cases from those who have been very active supporters, as I have already said, of the peace process - for Israel to declare that she is in a war situation, and on a war footing.

In my estimate this situation cannot continue for long. The vast majority of Israelis are disillusioned with the Oslo agreement, and in particular with Arafat and the men around him. They do not believe that he is a true partner for peace. In other words the dream of the Middle East Peace has given way to the nightmare of reality. When Faisal Husseini died suddenly at 61, of a heart attack in Kuwait, the last real moderate Palestinian leader was removed. Many Palestinians hoped that he would follow Arafat as leader and bring genuine democracy to the Palestinians. He was a tough negotiator and Israel discovered that, when he had anything to do with the negotiations, but he was a real negotiator. He has been removed from the scene and we are left with a bunch of unbelievably corrupt men, feathering their own nests, while weeping crocodile tears over Palestinian suffering.
It is common knowledge both in Israel and in the Palestinian areas - and I have a number of close Palestinian friends - that large sums of the money given to the Palestinians by the European Union and by Norway in particular and others, has been siphoned off. Nearly all of Arafat's close aides have suddenly built magnificent homes, some of them on the seafront with their own beach in Gaza, others in Ramallah. The CIA and the British Secret Service and the French Secret Service know these facts and it is, to me, absolutely unbelievable if Tony Blair and Robin Cook have not been informed, or President Bush or Colin Powell or President Chirac. I think these people surely must know what has happened. I was very interested that in the latest sum of money that the European Union so sweetly has put aside for the Palestinians, they have now asked that they themselves watch over the administration and distribution of this money. And that it not be administered by the Security Services, of all things, in the Palestinian areas. I think that speaks volumes.

Yasser Arafat is also in a difficult position. At present he is not so popular in the world at large because of the violence he's chosen as a strategy, particularly when he was offered so much by Ehud Barak. In fact his credibility in many nations, and particularly in the United States and Canada has been seriously impaired by his behavior in the last months. Therefore his declaration of a total cease-fire will be popular in the world at large, and in these nations in particular. But at home in the Palestinians areas and cities, over seventy-six percent of Palestinians support suicide bomber attacks and seventy-five percent support the continuation of the violence. If he were to round up and imprison Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists he could become very unpopular indeed. These figures are taken from a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for public opinion, with a four- percent margin of error. It is not in the least infeasible that in the next weeks Arafat could be assassinated by a radical and militant Islamist, if he were to comply totally with Israel's ultimatum. Such an assassination would then be blamed on Israel - there is no doubt about it - for after all Arafat himself said that we have been producing chocolates with depleted uranium in them for Palestinian children. That we have been poisoning the water supplies of the Palestinians, and earlier he said chewing gum had been given in the markets in Palestine that's made Palestinian men infertile. It's amazing to me, some of the things that he's actually said in speeches. Such an assassination however will be blamed on Israel with the most fearful consequences. 

I ought also to add that Israel's economy is suffering, particularly in two areas, tourism and construction - both directly affected by these months of violence. Israel's tourism is down by sixty percent and as a result El Al, the national airline, is cutting back on flights and cutting out a number of destinations, including Manchester, Copenhagen and I believe Chicago. Nevertheless the Israeli economy is in a very strong position in spite of it, and inflation at present, for those who remember when we nearly reached 600 percent at one time, is down to normal European levels of just a few percent. The economy, however, in the Palestinian Authority areas is not good, with some 38% unemployment and serious disruption of normal life and trade.

Ex-Senator Mitchell came heading a commission to look into the violence and make some recommendations. He was the same gentleman who went to Northern Ireland to make recommendations there as well. Their findings have been accepted by the Israeli government, and, rather more hesitantly by the Palestinian Authority. Arafat and his aides have seized upon what the Mitchell Commission have recommended on the settlements, which was a total freeze. This of course is in line with United States policy, as with United Kingdom policy and the European Union policy, but diametrically opposed to the Word of God. I see nothing but divine judgement, according to Joel chapter three and verse two, on those nations that divide the land and cause any scattering of God's heritage. For those of you who pray much over this matter, I believe this will become the focal point of much controversy and conflicts in the months and immediate years ahead. Remember that it is not just places such as Ariel or Efrat or Kiryat Arba, but Jerusalem suburbs of Gilo, Ramot, East Talpiyot and Ma'ale Adumim that are also in question. 

What is the immediate outlook? Well what can we say to all of this? That the Most High rules in the affairs of men as Daniel says. Whatever the immediate future holds, the Lord is in charge of it and will work out and fulfill His own will. There is no doubt in my own mind that we have passed through one of the most difficult periods of modern Israel's fifty-three years. We have moved from a government that was prepared to give away almost everything, to a government based on Zionist principles and ideals that cannot budge on the essentials of those principles. There is also no doubt in my mind that the withdrawal from Lebanon, whether right or wrong, gave the wrong signal to the Islamic world and particularly to the militant Islamic world. And Hizbullah, the Palestinian Authority and others have interpreted it as solid evidence that Israel has lost her nerve and is morally and spiritually exhausted. In other words, the strategy for Islamic militarism or militancy must be to wear out Israel, little by little, until she throws in the glove and can be disposed of easily. 

Shimon Peres said recently that this is the most serious crisis that Israel has faced in his estimation since 1947/48. Now we have in fact faced a whole number of wars that were very serious in their nature, I think of the Yom Kippur war in particular. What he meant was, that Israel has not faced since that time, a period when innocent Israelis were shot at, injured, even murdered while going about their jobs on the roads, or in the markets or in their homes. We've always had terrorism, but we've never had people going to work shot and killed before - not since 1947/48; in that period it happened continuously. A number of Israeli leaders have actually called this phase, a low-key war, or a war of attrition. It seems that Yasser Arafat's strategy has been and is the destruction of Israel's morale by wearing her out through continuous violence. Through tension that such violence brings and by the bad press that Israel would have in dealing with such violence - particularly when children and young people are used as a front. His strategy is to use the divisions within Israeli society, a society that on the whole has a strong moral and biblical foundation, and is sensitive to what is right and what is wrong. After all you never have demonstrations of Palestinians anywhere. In fact you don't even have Arab demonstrations anywhere - over such things as the two reservist soldiers that were lynched in Ramallah when they took the wrong road, or the two teenage boys who played truant and went for a hike and had their heads smashed in and their bodies totally mutilated - just as examples. Had such things had been done by Israelis, there would have been massive demonstrations in every part of Israel. In Israel there are immediately protest demonstrations for far less than anything like that.

Take the settlements problem, so-called. There are many Israelis who believe that the settlements should be evacuated and given up. It is a highly emotive matter, but it goes to the very heart of Israel's existence. After all, Tel Aviv is a settlement and so is Netanya and so are a whole number of other places. I could go on and on - Gush Etzion, Rehovot, we could go on and on - they are all settlements. It used to irritate me enormously years ago, when people spoke, when Israeli towns and villages were being shelled in the north, that they were called settlements. Some of these settlements were over a hundred years old, but in the Israeli mind it is a tremendous thing, a settlement. If you used the terms, towns and villages, Jewish towns and villages, Israeli towns and villages, the whole world would understand something different. Why are they shelling Israeli towns and villages, that is wrong! But when it comes to settlements they seem to think that it is okay. In the end this whole matter comes down to the way we view the Word of God and the Covenants of God.

Arafat's saying, and he said it in Arabic a number of times, that by the violence, the tension, the divisions and the confusion, to cause a mass exodus of Jews out of the land. And not just a mass exodus out of the so-called settlements. In this connection it is interesting to note the statement by Israel's Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, that this Intifada could go on, not for days, nor for months - not even for a year - but for years. And Israel, he said needs stamina and endurance. But can this situation go on in Israel for much longer? The problem is the unpredictables. Keep your eye on the northern border, for it is there that, I believe, the flashpoint will in the end come. Personally I cannot see it going on for years. Furthermore there is no reason to fear coming to Israel to visit or for holiday, in spite of what I've said. Seek the Lord about it, and if you have peace, come! It is after all much safer than most of the cities in North America and even Europe. For the believer walking with the Lord, the long-term outlook is tremendous. To Jerusalem the Messiah will return, the Kingdom of God will come with the King in publicly manifested power and glory. War and conflict will cease and peace will come with the Prince of Peace. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. 
So dear Prayer Warriors, don't throw in the glove, don't yourself be exhausted, don't in any way be depressed. Lift up your eyes, lift up your head, for the King is coming. 

Prayer Points:

Thank you very much, may God bless you all.

Lance Lambert, Jerusalem