Question: What do you make of Bill Maher’s stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?
Wikipedia: Before World War I, the Middle East region, including the Ottoman Syria (the southern part of which are regarded as Palestine), was under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years.[1] Towards the end of the 19th century, Palestine, which was divided between the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, Syria Vilayet and Beirut Vilayet, was inhabited predominantly by Arab Muslims, both farmers and Bedouin (principally in the Negev and Jordan Valley), with smaller numbers of Christians (mostly Arabs), Druze, Circassians and Jews (predominantly Sephardic).[2] At that time most of the Jews worldwide lived outside Palestine, predominantly in eastern and central Europe,[3] with significant communities in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Americas.
The delegates at the First Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland (1897).
The roots of the conflict can be traced to the late 19th century, with the rise of national movements, including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Though the Jewish aspiration to return to Zion had been part of Jewish religious thought for more than a millennium, the Jewish population of Europe and to some degree Middle East began to more actively discuss immigration back to the Land of Israel, and the re-establishment of the Jewish Nation, only during 1859 to the 1880s, largely as a solution to the widespread persecution of Jews, and antisemitism in Russia and Europe. As a result, the Zionist movement, the modern movement for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people, was established as a political movement in 1897.
The Zionist movement called for the establishment of a nation state for the Jewish people in Palestine, which would serve as a haven for the Jews of the world and in which they would have the right for self-determination.[4] Zionists increasingly came to hold that this state should be in their historic homeland, which they referred to as the Land of Israel.[5] The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund encouraged immigration and funded purchase of land, both under Ottoman rule and under British rule, in the region of Palestine[6] while Arab nationalism, at least in an early form, and Syrian nationalism were the dominant tendencies, along with continued loyalty to the Ottoman state, in the area.
Question: How do Israelites justify the building of settlements in the West Bank?
It must be remembered that the so-called “occupied territories”, are the land area’s that Israel took over after being attacked from those areas, without provocation, during the attacks since 1948!
Israel agreed to relinquish Gaza to the PA, in return for a peaceful co-existence, but the PA did not honour that agreement, which has made Israel more determined to defend itself, after their experience of the Holocaust!
Google: How does Israel justify the settlements?
Israel has justified its civilian settlements by stating that a temporary use of land and buildings for various purposes appears permissible under a plea of military necessity and that the settlements fulfilled security needs.
Isa. 66:8
Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the Earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a Nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travelled she brought forth her children.
There is a curious verse (Isa. 66:7) which seems to say that a child (Nation) will be born before the normal travail of labour. However; the "before" (Str. 2962) is probably mistranslated in the A.V., and should read "delayed", "suspended", "not yet", "none-occurrence". The meaning being that the nation being brought to being is suspended! (One explanation for this puzzle is that the Declaration of The "State of Israel"; which took place on the 14th day of May 1948; and Israel became a Nation "in one day"; was the beginning of what has yet to be completed, as per. Isa. 66:9)! That prophecy foreshadows the rejection of Christ by Israel, and therefore their own rejected ("Lo-Ammi"), state for 2000 years. After the Zech. 12:10 experience, the rest of Isa. 66 applies and is wonderful for Israel and other peoples of God. That a Nation is being brought forth cannot be disputed, as in the following verse (Isa. 66.8), Zion is travailed! Verses 7 & 8 therefore seem to contradict, except for the above possible explanation, and a filling full of the prophecy. It is supremely significant, that as soon as Antichrist breaks his peace agreement with Israel, (2nd ½ of 70th week Dan.) Chapter 11 of Revelation and its events start, which correspond with Isa. 66:8, "for as soon as Zion travaileth, she brought forth her sons (children)". This is the birth of the new Nation of Israel. The one that will have such Earthly blessing in the 1000 years of Jehovah / Christ's reign on Earth, whose borders will be as the promise made to Abraham by Jehovah (Gen. 12:2-3), (Gen. 15:18), (Jer. 32:37-42), (Jer. 33:14-16), (Jer. 33:25-26), (Ezk. 11:17-20), (Ezk. 34) & (Ezk. 47:15-21), and many other references throughout Scripture. The birth of this Nation is one of the greatest events in the plan of Jehovah Zebaoth on Earth, and will be greeted with great joy in Heaven and Earth, as it corresponds with the praise of the Heavenly hosts for the vanquishing of the Evil One on Earth (Rev. 19:1), which was prophesied in Psalm 104:35.
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