Arab Israeli Conflict Background

History Showing Israel's Rights to the Land

I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.  

Genesis 12:2-3 (above) is a well known passage in the Bible. America has enjoyed the blessing we received for blessing and supporting Israel. But we minimize or ignore the curse if we curse Israel. The Scripture is very clear that GOD will restore Israel to her ancient homeland. For years I have been teaching from Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37 that GOD would restore Israel to the Mountains of Israel. The mountain range of Israel is now called the “West Bank” or the “occupied territory”.

Before World War I all of the Middle East was owned by the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. Arabs did not own the land but farmed it as serfs for the landowners who were Turkish. The British conquered the Ottoman Empire in World War One and occupied the land. England and France then drew the borders of each state in the Middle East without concern for the residents.

The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 established the Jewish homeland which included all of present day Israel (with the West Bank and Gaza) and also included the country of Jordan. In 1922 the British divided the land in order to create an Arab state (called Transjordan) and a Jewish state (called Palestine). For this reason many leaders of Israel object to making another Arab state out of their land, saying they already gave up land for peace when Jordan was created.

The Land was described as desolate in 1869.

Mark Twain visited Israel and wrote a book titled Innocents Abroad published in 1869. At that time he described the land as desolate, arid with little water and where there was water there was malaria swamps. The total population was estimated at less than 250,000. The Jewish people who began to return to Israel at the end of the 1800s purchased the land from Turkish land owners. As the Jewish people began to rebuild the land of Israel they hired Arabs creating jobs that were filled by Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians. They simply walked across the border looking for work. This fact is recorded in the book, From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters.

Six Day War

In June 1967, the president of Egypt asked the UN to withdraw it peace-keeping troops and began to proclaim how he would wipe Israel off the map. He would drive them into the Mediterranean Sea. One headline read, “24 Hours Tell if Israel Lives or Dies”. The Pentagon was very skeptical if Israel could survive. In six days Israel conquered the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Sinai. After the 6 Day War, Israel’s victory was proclaimed a miracle. Psalms 83 described the war and predicted the results. GOD truly gave Israel the Golan Heights and the West Bank. And if they give it back in exchange for peace that would be wrong. It is not in the will of GOD.