By Richard Doiron

Jerusalem as we know it today was established by the United Nations on May 14, 1948. However we know from the book of Joshua it was established by the Lord in approximately 1400 B.C. Joshua 1:2,3. "Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." From the first day that Joshua stepped across the Jordan the land has been in dispute by most of the world because Satan will not allow the Jewish nation to have rest. He- through the Arab people- will be a thorn in the side of the Jewish nation until the Lord comes back and rules the nations himself. It is strange to think that Jerusalem it the single most important news story year after year, though it is certainly one of the smallest nations on earth. The very fact that Jerusalem is mentioned at all in the national news proves that God’s Word is true. As a nation it is only 10,000 square miles. Louisiana is 43,000 square miles. Jerusalem is about the same size as New Hampshire. Iraq is 280,000 square miles. All the Arab nations combined equal 5 million square miles. There can be no other reason why such a small country is in the news every single day of the year. There is more than a murder a day in New York and no one outside of New York will ever hear of it- but let some one die in Jerusalem and it is on the national and world news. It can only be because the Jews are God’s chosen people and the world knows it and it upsets them to an astonishing degree.

Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible more than 800 times. That alone makes it noteworthy. It is the only city in the world that God Almighty bestowed His special blessings upon. Psalm 132: 13-14: "For the Lord hath chosen Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation, This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, For I have desired it." It is the only city on Earth that we are commanded to pray for- Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee". We as a nation actually prosper because we help Jerusalem. If we ever turn our back on her, we will become a backwash as so many nations have become that have turned on Jerusalem. Germany, Italy, Greece, England and on and on. At one time or another they either persecuted the Jews or just turned away from them altogether and they never regained their political importance or power. Russia persecuted the Jews and we see what it has become. Can it be that simple though? Help, protect and pray for Jerusalem and the Lord will prosper your nation? Yes, it is that simple. If you ever hear of anyone in our government wanting to cut off aid to Jerusalem you need to write to them or vote them out of office. Period! God said that He has chosen Jerusalem as the place where He has put His name forever. II Chronicles 6:6- " But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there;" Psalm 46:4 "there is a river, the stream whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most High. God is in the midst of her- she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early". The next verse explains what happens every night in the news "the heathen raged" that has been what is going on since the Lord first established His city.

It is the only city that will last- the only city that survives the wrath and judgement of God. Of course Jerusalem has suffered at the Hand of God Himself. Luke 13,19 and 21- "And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it... O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which thou killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!...Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord... And they... shall be led away captive unto all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" And it suffers unto this day. For over 1900 years Jerusalem was essentially devoid of Jews. Most Arab nations and nations of the world would like to have it that way again. If it were not for the United States and England forcing the United Nations to give the Jews their homeland it would not exist (of course the Lord caused it to be so through those countries).

Lets look a moment at the world’s reaction to the establishment of a homeland for the Jews. In 1904 Pope Pius X said- "we cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem, but we could never sanction it." In 1919 Cardinal Gasparri said, "The danger that frightens us most is that of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine" . In 1928 the Vatican said that the Jews were "a people formerly chosen by God". In 1943 Pope Pius XII wrote to Theodore Roosevelt, "If a Hebrew Home is desired, it would not be too difficult to find a more fitting territory than Palestine. With an increase in Jewish population there, grave new problems would arise." In 1948 Arabs owned less than 3% of so called Palestine yet no one wanted the Jews to settle there. No one.

For over 3000 years Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. The Temple mount on the summit of mount Moriah is the heart of Jerusalem. This is supposed to be where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac to God. The spot was purchased by King David from Ornan the Jebusite to build an altar to God, and there, Solomon built the first temple. Now the Dome of the Rock sits in its place. I don’t know about you but I take great offense over the fact that every single time anyone shows a picture or scene of Jerusalem the very first thing they show is the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock. That is not Jerusalem and when the Lord returns I promise you it will not be standing! It is a monument to Islam’s unbiblical and totally irrational claim that Abraham offered not Isaac but Ishmael to God. Interestingly enough Jerusalem is no where mentioned in the Koran. Not even once.

How did the Palestineans decide that Jerusalem was theirs. Immediately after the United Nations established Jerusalem as their new homeland they were attacked by the Arab nations that surrounded them. Before the Arabs attacked they broadcast over the radio stations and loudspeakers for all the Arabs to get out of Palestine and Jerusalem, for after they crushed the Jews not only would they get their own homes back but all that the Jews had also. Surprise - they lost. The Arabs that fled to the other Arab nations were not welcome and were considered squatters . The Jews didn’t want them because of their rebellion so there was a no man’s land created for the new "Palestinians" the same we have today. In 1948 there were fewer than 40,000 "Palestinian refugees" that fled - now there are almost 600,000 that want to return to their homeland. In Sept 2000, then United Nations secretary general said that " the Jews must give up their status as a nation and

Israel as a state, and assimilate as a community in the Arab world". This is obviously the true intent of almost all the nations of the world but it can only be for one reason. That Satan has the leaders hearts in his hands. Why else would anyone be concerned over this tiny piece of real estate.

Aside from the 1967 - 3 day war, in which once again the Jews prevailed, we didn’t hear much from the Arab world. That is, until they nationalized all the oil fields – threw out the American and European companies that discovered the oil and became a world power through the establishment of OPEC. Before 1960 we imported less than 10% of our oil. Now it is the neighborhood of 60%. OPEC controls the price of the world’s oil because they have so much of it. Up until the early 70’s oil stayed around 4 or 5 dollars a barrel. OPEC changed this - they just shut off the supply until the price reached $30.00 a barrel and have essentially kept it from $15 to $30 a barrel since. The only reason it fluctuates at all is that the member nations don’t always agree to limit their production and produce more than their allotment thereby driving the price down. What this has done is that all of a sudden everyone wanted to know what was on the Arab mind and how to keep them happy to keep the oil flowing. Israel has essentially no oil. If this isn’t God’s plan I have no idea what it could be. Once the Arabs have the world’s ears they started with their lies. It never stops. Their entire reason for their existence seems to be to eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth and they gladly say so.

Let me talk for a moment of Israel’s present status. You will not get the truth from your local news. Sadly they tow the party line that the Jews are merely militaristic pigs that force the Palestinians to stay refugees. Considering that Syria, Iraq, Jordan etc contain almost as much land as the United states of America and that they refuse to incorporate the Palestinians into their lands shows that something else is going on here. The Arab nations have a stake in keeping the refugees unhappy, hungry and ill-housed. It is their weapon against Israel. Consider for example that Israel has given back nearly 90% of the land that it took in the 1948 and 1967 wars. Wars in which they were the defenders of their own nation established by the United Nations. At Camp David under the guidance of President Bill Clinton- Prime minister Barak offered 90% of all the remaining occupied territories . Arafat would only accept 100% or nothing at all, plus sovereignty of East Jerusalem- which was never in their control. Does anyone ever hear of this on the news? That Arafat would rather see his people homeless than to accept less than everything he wants? All efforts since have been spurned by Arafat. Barak said that the peace process is ended- Arafat says that their determination to recover occupied territories and establish Jerusalem as their capital will never cease. No one wants their price of oil to go up again so we pander to the Arab world. (As an aside. When – in 1973 and in 1980 oil went to $33.00 per barrel the price of gas barely went over $1.00. We have had an additional 33 cents per gallon of tax added since then. For example. Last week we had 5000 gallons of diesel delivered to our field. The cost to the tug that delivered it was 33 cents per gallon. We paid a bit over 50 cents per gallon because there is no road use tax on marine diesel. Truckers and everyone else pays $1.50 per gallon. Or about $1.00 a gallon in tax. Remember that next time someone says President Bush is at fault. It is your congress and senate that are at fault.)

We want those pesky Jews to lighten up and give those poor Arabs back what they took from them. Trouble is it was always the land of the Jews according to God almighty. Theirs for the taking with His blessing. It seems our presidents do their best to cater to Arafat. Obviously the various popes have over the years. But what kind of man is this. A little history might help give you a picture of what the world is dealing with. Since 1969 the PLO - or Palestinian Liberation Organization has been headed by Yassar Arafat. To quote the organization "the struggle with the Zionist enemy is not a struggle about Israel’s borders, but about Israel’s existence". The PLO is an Islamic terrorist organization. It has trained most of the terrorist organizations around the world. Idi Amin’s murderous gangs – who killed over 300,000 black Christians in Uganda, the Italian red brigades, the Baader Meinhoff gang, the Iranian revolutionary guards, the terrorist revolutionary murderers in Latin America all have their roots with Arafat’s organization. Arafat said he committed his first murder at age 20 and has committed many more since then. Under Arafat the PLO has become the worlds largest and most dangerous terrorist organization. It holds several records. Four hijackings at once, the largest number of hostages 300, the largest ransom (so far) 5 million, the greatest number and variety of civilian targets (40 civilian aircraft, 5 passenger ships, 30 embassies, and massacres of school children). Quite a record to be proud of I am certain. The Palestinian Prize for culture was recently awarded to Abu Daoud for his book telling how he masterminded and murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. These are the people that our presidents court and hope Israel will give land for PEACE!

The PLO terrorism against Jordanian civilians was so vicious that King Hussein chased the organization into Lebanon. There the PLO wiped out the Christian towns of Damur, Beit Mallat, tall Abbas and others. Its reign of terror went unreported because the PLO killed anyone that spoke out against it. Larry Buchman, Sean Toolan of ABC T.V. and Mark Tryon of Free Belgium radio, Robert Pfeffer of Der Speigel paid the ultimate price for telling the truth. Those Arab leaders who have tried to be a moderate voice in their dealings with Israel have also paid the ultimate price. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, President Bashir Gamayel of Lebanon, King Abdullah of Transjordan all died for extending the true hand of peace to Israel. In the new terrorist state that Arafat tried to establish about 300,000 Lebanese civilians were murdered before Israeli troops, at the request of the people of Lebanon, finally pushed them too the sea where the United States and the U.N. boated them to Greece to protect them. In all this Israel was the villan. Recently Pope John Paul visited with Arafat in response to his invitation to Bethlehem to join in a celebration of "our Jesus Christ". At the meeting Arafat said that Jesus was a freedom fighter against Israel and the pope smiled and blessed him. Arafat was recently given the Nobel Peace Prize as the champion for justice for the Palestinian people. There never was a Palestinian people. Never. No language, culture, nation or religion. The land was Canaan and occupied by Canaanitess whom God destroyed because of their wickedness. Canaan became Israel given by God to His people. Everyone today who claims to be a Palestinian is an Arab. Arab by birth, language and religion. Most have moved into the area because of the prosperity of Israel and the jobs available there. They are not allowed to work in Jordan or Syria or any other Arab nation because they are just not wanted except as puppets in Arafats hands.Today we continue to see God prophecy fulfilled. That Jerusalem would be a nation "trodden by the Gentiles until the times of gentiles be fulfilled". In 1947 U.N. resolution 181, supported by the Vatican, declared that Jerusalem must remain an international city. Israel’s Knesset is there but until this year all nations have established their embassies in other cities-

usually Tel Aviv which most people claim to be Israel’s capitol city. George bush has declared that we will have our embassy in Jerusalem. He has come under much criticism from the rest of the world for his intentions. No other country in the world is forbidden to establish their own capitol city. Just Israel. The European Union repeatedly has said it " does not recognize Israels’ sovereignty over Jerusalem. That is like telling the United States that we cannot have Wash D.C. as our capitol, that it must be an international city. Israel is only the size of New Hampshire yet it causes this much consternation in the world that every nation and power feels it has the right to determine Jerusalem’s future. How many nations have been established since 1948 and no one says anything. The rest of Africa has changed dramatically with no international outcry. South Africa has changed hands but no one claimed the right to pick its capital.

In 1998 the Vatican’s foreign minister called the Israeli’s presence in Jerusalem an Illegal occupation"

In the year 2000 Pope Paul signed a Vatican decree rejecting the Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem in agreement with the PLO and called for international guarantees that Jerusalem would be kept under international control. "

As the peace process continues, Arabs murder and torch the homes of fellow Arabs suspected of cooperating with Israel. Muslim terrorists who kill Jews are honored with streets and holidays named after them. Yet Israel dreams of peace with those who have sworn to exterminate them. The day of Israel being established by the U.N. is known to the Arabs as the day of catastrophe. Last year the Arabs celebrated that day with bottle and rock throwing and riots which results in several deaths and over 350 people being injured. There will come a day- only the Lord knows- when many more than several people will die. The day of Armageddon will wipe out most of the earth’s inhabitants and wipe the earth clean. It will truly be a day of catastrophe for unbelievers – but a day of victory of those who follow almighty God. Then and only then will there be peace in Jerusalem because Christ will reign there. His land, Forever.