Immanuel.at Forum for Discussion Discourse 101: The "Israel movement" in the Christian congregations / Christian Evangelical Zionism.

(Is Israel’s right to the state founded in 1948 written in the Bible? / International Network of Reconciliation 00 2010-02-16

Dear Mr. Horak, I have just spent several days reading your website. We (the Internationale Netzwerk der Versöhnung / International Network of Reconciliation, FH) have been heavily committed to support of the Jewish people in the past year, but after some years of questioning in relation to the founding of the state of Israel and the Aliyah of the Jews from Russia, we have been pondering the matter and asking questions. You offer convincing explanations. Can you tell us the meaning of the statement in Isaiah 66,7-9? For this is the basis for the theology of the Christian Zionists with their view that Israel has a right to this state because that is what is written. Just in the same way as they say that it is written in Jeremiah that the fishers and the hunters are coming (Jer 16,16, FH). That is the foundation of the movements for the Aliyah! We would be glad to hear your response. We have also been getting to grips with the doctrine of dispensationalism, and here our opinion differs from what you write. All the same, it would be good if you could give us some help? Yours sincerely, Hannelore Weitzel for the rest of the group.

Internationales Netzwerk der Versöhnung e.V.
International Network of Reconciliation
(a non profit organisation)

Hannelore Weitzel intern-netzwerkderversoehnung@gmx.de

Thank you for visiting Immanuel.at, and for your friendly remarks. I hope you have read those documents in which I explain my views in relation to Israel and its promises made by Israel’s God and ours. To be on the safe side, however, I would like here to summarize once more my relevant findings based on Scripture.

Since two thousand years Israel is without God

According to these, by rejecting the Son of God, its Messiah, almost 2000 years ago, Israel has first of all forfeited any contact with its God. At that time God left the temple and his people Israel (Mt 27:47-51). From the point of view of the Bible, since their rejection of the Messiah, and in consequence of the destruction of the Temple and so of the sacrificial altar in Jerusalem, the people of Israel have no longer had any contact whatsoever with their God. Unless of course they convert to Jesus Christ (but then they become Christians), the Israelites cannot expect to have a single word of God’s addressed to them up till the time of the Second Coming of the Lord, to enter on his rule of the Millennial Kingdom. Since the Son of God says of himself:

Jn 14,6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. Jn 14, 6;

1Jn 2,23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1Jn 2,23;

Jn 8,22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?" 8,23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 8,24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Jn 8,22-24;

- and since all Jews of the Mosaic faith absolutely refuse to recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Lord, or even as their Messiah, but rather see him as an imposter and blasphemer, in the time between his death and resurrection and his Second Coming the Jews have no possibility of interaction with their God, either by prayer or by sacrifice. In consequence of the above statements of the Lord’s, it follows that for almost two thousand years they have been a godless people and without the forgiveness of sins.

Behold, your house is being left to you desolate until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!

Mt 23,32 "Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 23,33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 23,34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 23,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

23,36 "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 23,37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 23,38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 23,39 "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’" Mt 23,32-39;

Here above, in Mt 23,38, the Lord says to the Israelites: "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate". This is originally a saying of David (Psalm 69,25: «May their camp be desolate; May none dwell in their tents.»), which Peter also quotes in Acts 1,20, in his address on the election of a new twelfth apostle instead of the traitor Judas Iscariot, together with another saying of David, from Ps 109,8: «… Let another take his office.»

It is significant that these two sayings of Daniel apply not only to the traitor Judas Iscariot, but also to the betrayal of the people of Israel against their Messiah. Their house will be left desolate – God has dissolved the covenant with Israel – and their office – the government in the Kingdom of God on earth, the Millennium – will be given to to a people, producing the fruit of it (Mt 21,43).

Only on the coming of the Lord to commence his rule of the Millennial Kingdom of peace, when he will gather Israel from all the corners of the world and they will look on him and weep bitterly over him whom they have pierced on the cross (Rev 1:7; Mt 24:30; Zech 12:10), will Israel again be reconciled with its God and become, under its King David (Jer 30:8-9; Eze 34:23; Hos 3:4-5) the "chief of the nations" (Jer 31:7; 2Sam 22:44; Ps 18:44), in other words a world power on earth.

And it is just this time at the start of the Millennium, of the Thousand Year Kingdom of peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to which the biblical passage from Isa 66,7-9 mentioned by Ms. Weitzel in her above remarks refers. In the Battle of Har-Magedon, of which Isaiah speaks in the verse immediately preceding (Isa 66,6), the Lord will annihilate his enemies, and *** after that ***(!!!) the redeemed of Israel will be brought back by their God to the Promised Land. This is the rebirth of Israel, the rebirth of Zion.

Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.

Isa 66,6 "A voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, The voice of the LORD who is rendering recompense to His enemies. 66,7 "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. 66,8 "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 66,9 "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God. 10 "Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, 66,11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom." 66,12 For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees. Isa 66,6-12;

In the Millennium, the Israel of God will be "born in one day" and God will extend peace to her like a river. Today’s Israel, the Israel founded by human beings, has never had any peace, after more than 60 years of existence. And as can be clearly seen from the events of recent days, Israel doesn’t actually want peace at all. In the eastern part of Jerusalem ‒ in that area which, following the occupation of Palestine by the Israelis, was granted to the Palestinians for the establishment of their capital ‒ the Israelis themselves have been constructing new settlements. In response to the protests of the Palestinians and pressure from the USA, a moratorium was put on building at the end of 2009.

But just at the time when US Vice President Joe Biden came to Jerusalem to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann announced that the building of settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem would after all be resumed. And the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was forced to resign from office a few years ago under charges of corruption but has since been re-elected, even proclaimed on his visit to the USA today (23.3.2010) that Israel built this city 3000 years ago, and is now continuing to build it. He followed up this assertion with typically Jewish chutzpah by inviting the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmud Abbas, to a new round of "peace" negotiations. In the following meeting with US President Barack Obama he must have made it clear, even to the latter, that Israel really does not want peace. On saying goodbye to Netanyahu, Obama declined to shake hands.

And a year later, in late February 2011, Netanjahu also snubbed the German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. As the Israeli daily Haaretz reports, the Prime Minister called the Chancellery to complain about Germany’s having voted for a UN Security Council resolution in condemnation of Israel’s settlements policy. Apparently Netanjahu told her that he was deeply disappointed. Ms. Merkel reacted forcefully to this, Haaretz says, citing a highly placed member of the federal government as the source of the information. "How can you have the nerve?" the Chancellor is said to have retorted to Netanjahu. "You are the one who has disappointed us." Ms. Merkel is quoted as saying that he had done nothing whatever to further the cause of peace. Here we can see yet another instance of the typical Jewish quality of chutzpah, and a particularly good example of the biblically documented stubbornness of the Jewish people. By acting in this way, Netanjahu does no favors to himself or to his country. When Israel is already hated by all its neighbors, Netanjahu has now deeply irritated the only two countries – the USA and Germany – which have supported Israel for the last 60 years.

Does that mean that the USA’s subsidies to Israel ‒ amounting to 2.7 billion dollars annually ‒ will be canceled? Unlikely. The powerful Jewish banks ‒ Rothschild, Rockefeller, Israel Moses Seif, Khun Loeb, Lehmann, Goldman Sachs, Warburg, Lazard Brothers ‒ will see to that. These same banks, incidentally, are also the proprietors of the FED (Federal Reserve Bank), the US American central or issuing bank which constitutes a unique phenomenon worldwide in that it is on no account "federal" in the sense of being owned by the state, but is actually privately owned (!!) ‒ by these same Jewish banking families. Some of these names have achieved sad notoriety as a result of the real estate crisis in the US, which triggered the global economic crisis, and the ensuing salvation of these banks with the help of hundreds of billions of dollars taken out of the pockets of American taxpayers. But that isn’t all that the FED expects of the taxpaying American public. Since the FED is responsible, as we know, for the printing of bank notes, it has very little compunction about cashing in on this ‒ as we read in the following dossier (the "FED Files"):

The FED’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) produces what are known as Federal Reserve notes (i.e. dollar bills). These bills are then loaned out in the form of obligations or bonds of the US government, which then serve as security for the FED. The bonds are held by the twelve regional FED banks, which in their turn charge annual interest. In 1992 the total value of these bonds already amounted to USD 5,000,000,000,000, and the interest paid by the American government (and in the last resort by the American public, on the basis of tax revenue) goes straight into the pockets of the owners of the FED and so to these globally powerful private banks. By this time the interest has reached a value of several hundred billion US dollars.

You Tube: The rule of the central bankers

This behavior of the Israelis toward the Palestinians can only be understood when we know that present day Israel long since ceased to be the People of God and so has not been "gathered" by God either. The gathering by God will take place through God’s Son Jesus Christ, and not a person like Theodor Herzl. After the battle of Har-Magedon our Lord Jesus Christ will gather the remnant of Israel from all the corners of the world and bring them to the land of Israel. He will then bring their King David back to life, and only then - in the Millennium – will Israel become "chief of the nations" (Jer 30:8-9 31:7) ‒ in other words, a world power.

Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth.

Jer 31,7 For thus says the LORD, "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chief of the nations; Proclaim, give praise and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, The remnant of Israel.’ 31,8 "Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; A great company, they will return here. 31,9 "With weeping they will come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn." Jer 31, 7- 9;

They will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son.

Zech 12,10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Zech 12,10;

But because the Israelis reject the writings of the New Testament and so are unfamiliar with them, these scriptural prophecies are frequently understood ‒ both in Israel and in some Christian denominations ‒ as referring to the present. For as so often happens, the Israelites were unwilling to wait until their God might judge that the time was come ‒ no, they had to take a hand themselves in order to speed up the business. Just after the foundation of the state of Israel, for example, Rabbi Emmanuel Rabinovich proclaimed to the world on 12 January 1952:

"Our final goal is to precipitate World War III, which will surpass in destruction all previous contests. (...) This war will end for all time our struggle against the Gentiles (...) and our race will rule undisputed over the world."

But the Israel of God is still very far away, and the inhabitants of Israel today ‒ with a few exceptions (Messianic Jews, Jewish Christians) ‒ are predominantly no less godless than the nations that surround them, which worship an idol invented by Mohammed under the name of "Allah" (the Arabic word for "God") ‒ who in the Koran commands the faithful

By contrast with this, the living, true and only God of the Bible wants all human beings to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1Tim 2,3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 2,4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2,5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 2,6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1Tim 2, 3- 6;

So the foundation of the state of Israel in the year 1948, frequently and incorrectly understood as "the gathering of Israel by its God", finds absolutely no justification of any kind in the Bible. This view is also held by Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora, as confirmed in the following statement by Chief Rabbi Moishe Arie Friedmann to the Orthodox Jews true to their faith living in Vienna:

"With the Holocaust as a justification, the state of Israel was founded by the use of force, which contradicts the will of God (Hos 1:7). As Jews true to our faith we accept the fate of the Diaspora which God has laid upon us. But the founding of the state of Israel has not just damaged the Jews on this religious plane; the means and the methods used by Israel to secure its existence against the Palestinians damage all Jews world-wide, and encourage the rebirth of anti-Semitism. For Jews true to their faith it is clear, however, that the Diaspora is the fate laid upon us by God until the coming of the Messiah."

Chief Rabbi Friedmann commented on the Second Lebanon War ‒ launched by the Israelis in 2006 without any provocation, and involving an attack on Lebanon by the Israeli military using combat jets, bombs and shells and leading to the destruction of entire cities and hundreds of civilian deaths ‒ in the following terms:

"My complete solidarity and support for the Lebanese people and its resistance fighters, above all for Hezbollah and its leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, has resulted in astonishment and debate. So I would like here to make the facts perfectly plain. We have to do here on the one hand with a state the sovereignty of which is being injured for no good reason, together with a Shiite resistance movement that has an uncontrovertible right to exist, and on the other hand with the Zionist regime, which has no right to exist either in biblical or in historical terms and has no legitimation whatever, either based on the law of nations or in terms of the fundamental principles of our Jewish religion. We pray and hope that it will not be long before true peace is realized in the Near East, above all in the Holy Land. We pray too for an end to the shedding of the blood of innocent people, whether they are Christians, Moslems or Jews. We pray for peace and justice in Lebanon, Baghdad, Tehran and the whole of Palestine, with a Jerusalem that has been liberated from Zionism."

Moishe Arye Friedman, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox Antizionist Jewish Community in Vienna.

Among the fatal casualties of this war were four UNIFIL officers (a Chinese, a Finn, a Canadian and an Austrian), who had been monitoring the Israeli-Lebanon border and the sanitary zone for years. In Israel’s attack on the Lebanon, the Israeli military fired shells repeatedly at targets in the immediate vicinity of this UNO observation post. The Austrian UNO officer contacted the Israeli military by radio as many as ten times (!) to request that they should not fire so close to the post. He couldn’t radio an eleventh time, sad to say, because an Israeli shell made a direct hit on the post and the four UN officers were dead. An investigation was promised, but has still not taken place. The UNO prefers to take on board the deaths of four persons from its member countries, rather than to indict Israel for its actions.

And we find a similar situation today in relation to Iran. It is supposed that Teheran, in contravention of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, is making an atom bomb. As Israel is concerned that it might be the first target of an Iranian weapon of this nature, the Israelis recently announced that if the USA does not bomb and annihilate Iran’s uranium enrichment plant, they will do it themselves. And here it is altogether within the bounds of possibility that Israel would use for the purpose one of its own 200 (!!) atomic warheads ‒ likewise made in contravention of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but with the tacit approval of the international community of nations ‒ with a view to making assurance double sure. And as with the Lebanese war, here again the UNO is likely to turn a blind eye and maintain that it is a case of self-defense ‒ even if at the time no attack by Iran has taken place, so that it still remains an open question whether Teheran, even if it had succeeded in making a bomb, would ever have taken such a risky course.

Does the Bible say that the Antichrist will be a Jew?

But to come back to the foundation of the state of Israel ‒ this "1948 gathering", the "Aliyah" referred to in Ms. Weitzel’s comments above (aliyah is the Hebrew word for the immigration of Jews, chiefly European Jews, to Palestine after 1948), brought together atheist Jews from the former Soviet Union and from all over the world, so it was not the work of God but rather that of Theodor Herzl and his Zionists, who ‒ as so often in the history of Israel, when the Israelites apostasized from their God (e.g. on Mount Horeb/Sinai) ‒ did not want to wait for God’s good time but again made themselves a "golden calf" ‒ this time the state of Israel.

Our Lord Christ, while he was alive, said to them that those who do not believe in the Son do not have the Father either, and so are "God-less" in a double sense. In as much as they have not converted to Jesus Christ, they have all been without forgiveness and have died in their sins for the last two thousand years. And so they have been assigned to eternal damnation in accordance with both Christian as well as Mosaic law.

1Jn 2,23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1Jn 2,23;

Jn 15,23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also. Jn 15,23;

Jn 8,22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?" 8,23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 8,24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Jn 8,22-24;

And when the Jews indignantly claimed that they had God for a father, the Lord revealed to them that in truth they originated from the devil, and so would wish to fulfill the desires of their true father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth, because there was no truth in him, only lies.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

Jn 8,41 "You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." 8,42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. 8,43 "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 8,44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 8,45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 8,46 "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 8,47 "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." Jn 8,41-47;

So since Satan already in the past ‒ almost 2000 years ago ‒ made use of his descendants among the Jews to deprive the Jewish people of its Messiah by trickery and deception and to have him crucified at the hands of the Romans, it would make sense if the devil were again in future to elect his own false Messiah, the Antichrist, from the flock of his Jewish sons. The family tree of the Antichrist (the Greek prefix anti means "against", but Antichrist can also mean "instead of Christ") will presumably also go back to David, like that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will claim to be the true Messiah and portray Jesus Christ as an imposter and blasphemer ‒ of course, this is something that we have heard from the Jews long before.

He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy – he deserves death!

Mt 26,63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 26,64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." 26,65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 26,66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 26,67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him. Mt 26,63-67;

The devil will claim to be God the Father and will lend his own power and great authority to his resurrected son, the demonic Antichrist (Rev 13:2). And this false Messiah will appear with power and signs and false wonders (2Thess 2:9), which the Jews above all, but sadly many Christian denominations as well, will see as a proof of his authenticity. He will promise the Jews world dominion, and imbue them with the power and authority of Satan as well.

If another comes in his own name, you (theJews) will receive him.

Jn 5,43 "I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. Jn 5,43;

This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

1Jn 2,22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 1Jn 2,22;

Almost 2000 years ago Satan, to whom all power over the kingdoms of this world is entrusted, tempted our Lord Jesus Christ by offering him world dominion if he would worship him, Satan.

I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Lk 4,5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 4,6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 4,7 "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." 4,8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.’" Lk 4, 5- 8;

But the Son of God, the true Messiah, rebutted this attempt by quoting the words "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only". (Gen 6:13, 10:20) The false Messiah will however be willing to accept this offer in order to prove to the whole world that he is the "true Messiah" and the "Son of God" and so claim that he fulfills all scriptural prophecies relating to the dominion of the Messiah.

He will also, above all, fulfill those promises which see Israel as becoming the "chief of the nations". But all these prophecies actually refer to the Millennial Kingdom of the Son of God in the distant future. So this attempt of Satan’s to deceive the world amounts to a complete plagiarism of the biblical prophecies.

Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovich, whom we quoted earlier ‒ even if he is "from below", as our Lord revealed to the rabbis and scribes of his own day (Jn 8:23-24), or for that very reason ‒ may then actually have been telling the truth in describing plans for Jewish world rule and suggesting that Israel (with the help of the false Christ) would become a world power:

But by contrast with the Millennium, where God promises his glory to Israel "not by might nor by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts" (Zech 4,6), the Antichrist will subject the world to battle and war with the help of Israel and its allies and make all non-Jews slaves, as Rabinovich actually prophesies in his speech.

All those genuine Christian believers who know their Bible and see through the deceit and refuse any truck with the deceiver will be persecuted, imprisoned and even killed by their "brethren" who have gone over to the other side, even by members of their own families.

Mt 10,16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. 10,17 "But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 10,18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 10,19 "But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 10,20 "For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. 10,21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 10,22 "You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. Mt 10,16-27;

The blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Rev 2,8 "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 2,9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 2,10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Rev 2, 8-10;

And this does not refer to Jews who will be hated and persecuted worldwide, as many commentators (especially Jewish ones) like to claim. We find confirmation of this in the Lord’s statement quoted above (Mt 10,22): "You will be hated by all because of my name". At this time, presumably only Christians can be hated because of the name of the Lord (Christ = Messiah) ‒ not the Jews, who in any case have never acknowledged Christ and regard him to this day as an imposter and blasphemer who according to the Jewish Talmud (which forms part of the Torah, the Jewish holy scriptures) is now "burning in hell".

And our Lord actually prophesied this to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees while he was still alive:

I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues.

Mt 23,29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 23,30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 23,31 "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 23,32 "Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 23,33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 23,34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 23,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 23,36 "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Mt 23,29-36;

These prophets, wise men and scribes whom the Lord will send are the Christian preachers, evangelists and biblical scholars of the Last Days who will be persecuted by the Jews, scourged in Jewish synagogues and in some cases put to death. But the Lord also gives us encouraging words to balance out these prophecies, which may seem gloomy from a Christian perspective, and at the same time confirms ‒ by saying (in Jn 15,23, quoted below) "He who hates Me hates My Father also" ‒ that the Jews, who have hated him for almost 2000 years, likewise hate God the Almighty and so have no God any more and in fact have been, ever since, a God-less people.

Jn 15,18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 15,19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 15,20 "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 15,21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 15,22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 15,23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also. Jn 15,18-23;

I know your tribulation and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Rev 2,8 "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 2,9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 2,10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 2,11 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’ Rev 2, 8-11;

If this interpretation is correct, the appearance of the Antichrist will be just the way the Jews have always imagined the arrival of their Messiah. All nations of the goyim (non-Jews) will have been conquered, and the Jewish race, with its Messiah, will dominate the world without contest. Only this Messiah will not be the true Messiah, the one who will reign in the Millennial Kingdom in peace and justice with Israel as "chief of the nations" (Jer 31:7). It will be the Antichrist, who will rule over the world with war and violence as the false Messiah in the Great Tribulation.

But the Jews have no idea about the Antichrist of course, seeing that they reject the New Testament and so have not come across him (Dan 9:27; Jer 28:14-15; Rom 11:25-26). So here too the prophecies of the Millennial Kingdom of peace of the Son of God ‒ including and especially those of the Old Testament ‒ have been suppressed or distorted by certain commentators. Of course there is no use in prophecies of a millennium in the future, if you want to make out that such prophecies have already been fulfilled in the "gathering of Israel" since the year 1948.

The Mosaic religion will then be declared a national religion, both in Israel and worldwide, through the substitution of a false God and a false Messiah. The prophecies of the Old Testament referring to the Messiah will be realized, through the power and authority of Satan, and the New Testament will be banned worldwide as a "work of imposture". The temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and the Antichrist will take his seat in the temple pretending to be "God". And "all who dwell on earth" will worship this false Messiah.

Rev 6,2 I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Rev 6, 2

Rev 13,8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Rev 13,8;

So that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

2The 2,3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 2,4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.2The 2, 3- 4;

In Rev 13,11 we are then told about a second beast, seen by John as arising from the earth. He has two horns like a lamb, and speaks like a dragon. And he exercises the entire power of the first beast ‒ the false Messiah ‒ in his presence. As we learn from what ensures, it is this second beast which induces the people of the entire world to worship the false Messiah. As for the identity of this second beast, there remains a difference of opinion among commentators to the present day. Some would like to see him as a political ruler; others again would actually identify him, and not the first beast, with the Antichrist.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast.

Rev 13,11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 13,12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13,13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 13,14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 13,15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13,16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 13,17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 13,18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Rev 13,11-18;

Here it emerges that if we see these matters just from the point of view of Revelation it does actually make it harder for us to work out what it is going on. But if we stick to the fact that all these events relating to the false Messiah are an attempt by Satan to imitate God in his actions (this was why Luther described Satan as the "ape of God"), then we must look at these prophecies in conjunction with related statements to be found in the Gospels, and for that matter in the Old Testament as well. And so we find in the prophet Malachi (Mal 3,23-24) an important indication of a certain sign heralding the appearance of the Messiah:

Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

Mal 4,5 "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 4,6 "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." Mal 4, 5- 6;

Before the great day of the Lord comes, God will send the prophet Elijah, who did not die but ascended to heaven (2Kings 2:11), to reconcile the sons with the fathers in Israel and to convert them to their God. It was just this prophecy which so preoccupied the scribes in Israel in Jesus’ own time, so the first question which the Jews put to John the Baptist was, Are you Elijah?

Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?

Jn 1,22 Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 1,23 He said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said." 1,24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 1,25 They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 1,26 John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. Jn 1,22-27;

Honestly enough, John the Baptist told them that he was not the Messiah but that the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, was already standing among them. But the disciples of the Lord also wanted him to tell them what this return of Elijah was all about.

Mt 17,10 And His disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" 17,11 And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 17,12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." 17,13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist. Mt 17,10-13;

The Lord’s answer contains two important statements. First of all he confirms the prophecy of the prophet Malachi, that Elijah will come. But then the Lord tells his disciples at the same time that Elijah has already come; only the Jews did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. Here the disciples understood that he was referring to John the Baptist, who had been beheaded at the orders of King Herod. But the Lord had already revealed to the Jews that the Baptist was Elijah who was to return.

Mt 11,13 "For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 11,14 "And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. Mt 11,13-14;

So we can see that the return of the prophet Elijah and the coming of the Messiah are inseparable. And just as was to be expected, Satan, the dragon, has plagiarized these events by associating a false prophet with the false Messiah. It is the second beast, seen by John as rising from the earth in the above quoted passage (Rev 13,11), which is then also described (in Rev 16,13, 19,20 and 20,10) as the false prophet.

I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;.

Rev 16,13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 16,14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. Rev 16,13-14;

And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence.

Rev 19,20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. Rev 19,20;

The devil was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also

Rev 20,10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Rev 20,10;

This proves to us that this second beast will not be the Antichrist, any more than John the Baptist was the Messiah. Nor will he be a political ruler, but rather a demon resurrected by Satan ‒ as is the Antichrist (the false Messiah) likewise. And just as the task of the real prophet Elijah on his return will be to convert the people of Israel to its God and its Messiah, so it is the task of this false prophet to induce all the people of the world to worship the false Messiah, the first beast, and to accept a mark on their right hand or forehead so that no one will be able to buy or sell if they do not have this mark. And all people who refuse to have the mark on their right hand or forehead because they are waiting for the Son of God, the true Christ, will be put to death.

The image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

Rev 13,15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13,16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 13,17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 13,18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Rev 13,15-18;

John writes about these people again in Rev 20,4, telling us that those who have been put to death because of their testimony of Jesus will come to life again in the First Resurrection, the resurrection of the martyrs, to reign with Jesus as priests in the Millennium.

I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God.

Rev 20,4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Rev 20, 4;

The Israel movement in the Christian congregations

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Must the Christians bring the Jews to Israel for their salvation? / International Network of Reconciliation 01, 2010-04-16)

(...) again we come to you with a request. Where is it written in the Word of God, that we as Christians must bring Jews to Israel so that they may find salvation there? In recent years I have repeatedly heard this said, and almost believed it! Well known biblical teachers gave notice in public that they had not been commissioned to preach the gospel to them (to the Jews, FH), but that God had told them that they must be brought to Israel by them (the Christians). That is why the organizations were founded, because God said that they should be founded. But now we have an enormous dilemma if in terms of God’s Word this is actually not the case!! Then we, as Christians, would have brought Jews into the imminent war and subsequent time of tribulation and would again have blood on our hands, as Christians????? This would be a tremendous drama! I don’t know what I can do at this point, short of requesting you to give us a public answer. Please let us have a response and tell us what should be done.

Internationales Netzwerk der Versöhnung e.V.
International Network of Reconciliation
(a non profit organisation)

Hannelore Weitzel intern-netzwerkderversoehnung@gmx.de

Yes, this is indeed an ever growing problem in congregations and domestic Christian groups, and many brethren view this matter with a whole lot of misgiving. Amongst other notices from Christian groups, just today I received an e-mail from a concerned brother who writes as follows:

"My request in short is this. I am so very concerned about the trend to Judaism in the congregation of Jesus. Especially in charismatic circles. I often think that they talk more about Israel than they do about our Lord Jesus."

www.horst-koch.de

Now in order to form a correct judgment of Ms. Weitzel’s question above, we need to be aware of some other remarks of hers from an earlier e-mail:

"You cannot imagine how difficult it can be to find the truth, when you live in Germany. Why is this? ‒ Because here in our beautiful country we have an Israel movement, which is fully committed with all that it has and is to teaching and believing that Israel, as it is today, is and has always been a state founded by GOD. I was long taken in by this fraud myself. (...) We believed what they told us, that Israel was founded out of the ashes of the holocaust. We believe that this is undoubtedly the case, but all the same the establishment of the state of Israel that took place in 1948 ‒ as we finally realized after extensive searching for biblical truth and with the help of many men of God who know their Bible (including yourself) ‒ this "gathering" was NOT and is NOT God’s fetching of Israel home! We were shattered by this, because we know that the Aliyah could only happen with the help of the Christians who are bringing the Jews to Israel because the various organizations concluded a contract with the present state of Israel to the effect that they would NOT missionize. They all had to sign a statement saying that they would NEVER say anything about Christ. Otherwise they would NEVER have received permission from the Jewish Agency (the Israeli immigration authority) to bring Jews from all the nations to Israel!!"

Regrettably, the Israel movement in the Christian congregations and Christian Zionism worldwide lead many brethren astray. If "Christian" organizations which bring Jews to Israel are compelled, in order to do so, to sign a contract saying they will not missionize there, they are acting in plain contradiction of the Lord’s command in Mk 16,15 and so are unbiblical and unChristian!

Mk 16,15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mk 16,15;

And just as Zionism is a purely political ideology, like Communism or Socialism or any other, and has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of religion, either Judaism or Christianity, so these organizations too, even if they may include the word "Christian" in their name, are purely political organizations and have nothing at all to do with Christianity ‒ instead they are acting, as we will show presently, in patent contradiction of the biblical fundamentals of Christian doctrine. Their representatives are not men of God either, but politicians, who pick out biblical statements just as it happens to suit them and use them as "election propaganda" for their own organization.

If Jews who believe in the faith of Moses, who draw their understanding exclusively from the Old Testament and reject the New Testament, just as they reject our Lord Jesus Christ(!), know nothing about this missionary commandment, that is understandable. So we cannot make the Jewish state responsible for this ‒ it is rather the leaders and representatives of these supposedly Christian organizations who allow themselves to be persuaded by Jewish preachers (and in recent times increasingly by German preachers as well) that it is their obligation, as Germans, to carry out this kind of "restitution".

But these organizations, and all those who support and endorse them, are also going against a further commandment of our Lord. If Christians missionizing in foreign countries come up against resistance and find that their activities are unwelcome, the Lord left us a simple rule which we must follow in such a case.

Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you.

Lk 10,10 "But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 10,11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 10,12 "I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Lk 10,10-12;

Of course this applies not just to Israel, but to all nations of the world where Christians are rejected and persecuted. And so here again the blame attaches to the Christians who seem to be ignorant of the Bible, or quite simply ignore the warning of the Lord, evidently because they hope to achieve some kind of personal success through their activities. So the question suggests itself whether these people are really acting out of Christian motives ‒ in which case they should read the Bible, and act accordingly ‒ or whether instead they have quite personal and worldly motives, but nonetheless succeed in leading other brethren astray, as Ms. Weitzel relates above. The latter view, incidentally, gains credence from the fact that the biblical teachers she mentions proclaim that "God has told them so". This kind of assertion ‒ putting words in the mouth of God which are not taken from the Bible ‒ should always be rejected by rightly believing Christians! Either these are deliberate untruths, or these words come from a very different "provenience".

If we now look at the situation from the point of view of the Jews, of course we must refer to the relevant statements to be found in the Old Testament. And here we now come to Ms. Weitzel’s specific question:

"Where is it written in the Word of God, that we as Christians must bring Jews to Israel so that they may find salvation there?"

To get things straight right away ‒ of course this is not written anywhere in the Bible. Not in the New Testament, and certainly not in the Old Testament either. What the Jews here incorrectly bring forward as an argument are those prophecies in the Bible referring to the real gathering of the people of Israel by its God, at the beginning of the Thousand Year Kingdom of peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the beginning of the Millennium. But as we will see later, these same scriptural passages permit us to conclude that God will change the fortunes of Israel not in our own time, but when this future time arrives.

Jer 33,7 ‘I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. 33,8 ‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. 33,9 ‘It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’ Jer 33, 7- 9;

The Israel of today is far from being cleansed of all its iniquity. Just as in other nations of the world, so in Israel too lies and injustice are widespread. Besides, it is in the nature of things that the fortunes of Israel will be restored by God on just one occasion ‒ that is, at the start of the Millennium. And if this is so, then Israel remains in its iniquity until that time is reached ‒ with all its sinning and transgressing against God. Only on that day in the future will God pardon the by this time humbled and reduced remnant of the people of Israel, and they will no longer need to be ashamed of the misdeeds whereby they completed their break with their God.

Zeph 3,11 "In that day you will feel no shame Because of all your deeds By which you have rebelled against Me; For then I will remove from your midst Your proud, exulting ones, And you will never again be haughty On My holy mountain. 3,12 "But I will leave among you A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the LORD. 3,13 "The remnant of Israel will do no wrong And tell no lies, Nor will a deceitful tongue Be found in their mouths; For they will feed and lie down With no one to make them tremble." Zeph 3,11-13;

Here in Zeph 3,11-13 we are principally concerned with those Israelites who will be left remaining in Israel itself after the day of the Wrath of God. Later on we are then told how the Lord will collect and bring back the remnants of his people from all over the world.

Zeph 3,14 Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 3,15 The LORD has taken away His judgments against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more. 3,16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: "Do not be afraid, O Zion; Do not let your hands fall limp. 3,17 "The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. 3,18 As on a day of festival I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. Zeph 3,14-18;

I will gather the outcast, And I will turn their shame into praise and renown In all the earth.

Zeph 3,19 "Behold, I am going to deal at that time With all your oppressors, I will save the lame And gather the outcast, And I will turn their shame into praise and renown In all the earth.
3,20 "At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I gather you together; Indeed, I will give you renown and praise Among all the peoples of the earth, When I restore your fortunes before your eyes," Says the LORD. Zeph 3,19-20;

In Zeph 3,14-18 we find an important indication that the passage in its entirety represents a prophecy of the Last Days. In verse 15 we are told, "The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst", and again in verse 17: "The LORD your God is in your midst". So the conclusion is inescapable that the statements in this passage relate to the conversion and gathering of the people of Israel at the beginning of the Millennium, when the Lord Jesus will be king in Jerusalem.

Likewise the promise "As on a day of festival I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. (Zep 3:18)" cannot be accommodated in the past. Israel bears the shame of having rejected its Messiah right up to the present day. This shame will not be wiped out until they greet the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ and their Messiah, with the words, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" After that their sins will be forgiven by God, and the spirit of grace and of supplication will be poured out on them. They will look on him whom they have pierced and mourn for him.

You will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

Mt 23,38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 23,39 "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed He who comes in the name of the LORD!’" Mt 23,38-39;

They will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son.

Zech 12,10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. 12,11 "In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. Zech 12,10-11;

The families of the house of David that remain will mourn for Him whom they have pierced.

Zech 12,12 "The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 12,13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 12,14 all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. Zech 12,12-14;

Ezekiel too speaks of this shame of the Israelites and of all their sin whereby they have sinned against their God, and promises that they will be gathered again to their own land. Later on, in Eze 39,29, we again recognize a reference to the Last Days. Here it is stated, "I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel". Right up to the present day the face of their God has been hidden from Israel, and a veil is over their heart (2Cor 3,15, quoted below); God’s Spirit may well have an effect among Gentile Christians, but not on the people of Israel as yet. For almost 2000 years Israel has been a God-less people, and will remain so until the Second Coming of their Messiah ‒ because they deny the Son and so do not have the Father either:

Jn 14,6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. Jn 14, 6;

1Jn 2,23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1Jn 2,23;

2Cor 3,14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 3,15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 3,16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 2Cor 3,14-16;

Eze 39,26 "They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 39,27 "When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. 39,28 "Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. 39,29 "I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD. Eze 39,26-29;

The remission of sin is one of the basic preconditions for the pouring out of the Spirit. The Spirit of God can only act and have an effect where sin has been forgiven. And the sin can only be forgiven when it has been acknowledged before God, and when the vicarious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ has been thankfully accepted for the forgiveness of sins.

For us Gentile Christians these connections have been a certainty of belief, and a fixed component of our faith, for almost two thousand years. As a result of their rejection of the Messiah, the Jews are barred from this forgiveness of sins right down to the present day. But God promises that "in that day" he will take away their sin and no longer remember their misdeeds. This will be the day on which they will "look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son", as we are also told in Zech 12,10-13, quoted earlier.

Isa 10,20 Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 10,21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. Isa 10,20-21;

Jer 50,19 ‘And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. 50,20 ‘In those days and at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’ Jer 50,19-20;

The LORD pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession.

Mi 7,18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. 7,19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea. 7,20 You will give truth to Jacob And unchanging love to Abraham, Which You swore to our forefathers From the days of old. Mi 7,18-20;

After the conversion of Israel and forgiveness of its sins, God will pour out his Spirit on Israel. If conversion and the forgiveness of sins are a precondition, the pouring out of the Spirit of God is a consequence of the reacceptance of Israel by its God. If the foundation of the present state of Israel had actually been commanded by God, as the biblical teachers quoted by Ms. Weitzel assert, then all these effects should be observable in the people of Israel today. Then it would be possible to recognize that God’s promise quoted below in Eze 11,19 ‒ "And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" ‒ has become a reality.

Joel 2,28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 2,29 "Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Joel 2,28-29;

I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;

Isa 44,1 "But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen: 44,2 Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 44,3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants; 44,4 And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ 44,5 "This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’S’ And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the LORD,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor. Isa 44, 1- 5;

Eze 11,19 "And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 11,20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. 11,21 "But as for those whose hearts go after their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down on their heads," declares the Lord GOD. Eze 11,19-21;

Eze 39,29 "I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD. Eze 39,29;

Can we really say, of the Israel of today, that the Spirit of God has been poured out over it, and that they "do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth" (Zeph 3:13)? The premature resignation of Ezer Weizmann and Benjamin Netanyahu (the latter now re-elected in 2010) from the two highest offices of state, that of President and that of Prime Minister, on charges of bribery and corruption proves the contrary. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert similarly had to resign because of corruption in 2006. The last President of Israel but one, Moshe Katsav, also had to leave office because of corruption and for raping a secretary. A member of parliament and the leader of the religious Shas Party, Ariel Deri, was likewise found guilty in court of corruption and fraud.

We do not need even to mention here the Israelis’ war crimes against the Palestinians, with thousands of deaths on both sides, Israel’s wholly unprovoked attack on Lebanon in 2006 (the Second Lebanon War) or the bombarding of a UNIFIL observation post on the Lebanese border which resulted in the wanton killing of four UNO officers.

With this we come to those biblical passages which have been repeatedly twisted by the Jews so as to support the assertion that the nations must bring the Jews to Israel, as we have seen in Ms. Weitzel’s e-mail. If we look more closely at these biblical passages, we recognize that these texts cannot possibly be referring to the Israel of our own day.

This is not only by reason of the proofs advanced earlier that Israel has not yet converted to its Messiah, so has not received any forgiveness of its sins, and neither has the spirit of grace and supplication yet been poured out on it ‒ but also, and above all, because the biblical passages pressed into service by the Jews and quoted below also speak of the Gentile peoples, who will then all have converted and come to believe in the God of Israel. That, unfortunately, is not going to happen in our own day, but only in the Millennium, when all peoples will have experienced the power and dominion of God on the Day of his Wrath.

Isa 14,1 When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 14,2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors. Isa 14, 1- 2;

The "strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob". These now cannot any longer be godless people like the Israelis of our own day. On the Day of the Wrath of God these Gentiles will have personally seen and experienced this God, his power and his dominion. And so it is also understandable if "ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’", as in this prophecy in Zech 8,23:

All the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

Zech 8,20 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 8,21 ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go." 8,22 ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.’ 8,23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Zech 8,20-23;

And they will bring your sons in their bosom, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

Isa 49,22 Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their bosom, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. 23 "Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet; And you will know that I am the LORD; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame. 24 "Can the prey be taken from the mighty man, Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?" 25 Surely, thus says the LORD, "Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons. Isa 49,22-25;

And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.

Isa 66,7 "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. 66,8 "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 66,9 "Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God. 66,10 "Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, 66,11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom." 66,12 For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees. Isa 66, 7-13;

Surely the coastlands will wait for Me to bring your sons from afar, Their silver and their gold with them.

Isa 60,9 "Surely the coastlands will wait for Me; And the ships of Tarshish will come first, To bring your sons from afar, Their silver and their gold with them, For the name of the LORD your God, And for the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you. Isa 60, 9;

These then are the biblical passages which the biblical teachers quoted by Ms. Weitzel believe to amount to a proof that the Christians should bring the Jews from Russia. And here we see the perfidious tactic of these people: they quote prophecies from the Old Testament which relate to the distant future, and simply claim that they already apply today.

With this kind of approach there are only two possibilities. Either these "biblical teachers" do not know the Bible, or they deliberately suppress the entire context of these biblical prophecies with the intention of leading the brethren onto a wrong path. In both cases, the senior brothers of the congregation should inform themselves of the content of such sermons before they are delivered and give the listeners the opportunity of asking questions. A frontal lecture, whatever the subject, where no one is allowed to ask questions is an admission of poverty by the lecturer, and more often than not is an attempt at indoctrinating the audience.

The Bible itself, to which these preachers, whether they are Christian or Jewish, repeatedly appeal in connection with the gathering of Israel, gives us the proof that Israel will only be gathered to the land of Israel after the Second Coming of its Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, to enter on his rule in the Millennial Kingdom of peace, when it will also become a great state, the "chief of the nations" (Jer 31:7; 2Sam 22:44; Ps 18:44). And only then, when Israel has converted to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom today they reject as an imposter and blasphemer, will the other nations bring the Jews from the four corners of the earth to Israel.

The obduracy of the people of Israel.

Otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.

Mt 13,13 "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 13,14 "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled (Isa 6,8-10), which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 13,15 for this heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’ Mt 13,13-15;

"But now we have an enormous dilemma if in terms of God’s Word this is actually not the case!! Then we, as Christians, would have brought Jews into the imminent war and subsequent time of tribulation and would again have blood on our hands, as Christians????? This would be a tremendous drama! I don’t know what I can do at this point, short of requesting you to give us a public answer. Please let us have a response and tell us what should be done."

are altogether understandable, and testify to a Christian sense of responsibility on the part of this sister in Christ. A sense of responsibility which the preachers and biblical teachers she refers to unfortunately seem to be altogether lacking.

With reference to the above question, however -

"Then we, as Christians, would have brought Jews into the imminent war and subsequent time of tribulation and would again have blood on our hands, as Christians?????"

- one thing must be stated plainly: it is not and never has been the responsibility of Christian congregations to bring atheist Jews from Russia to Israel. This error emerges very clearly in another of Ms. Weitzel’s e-mails, when she writes as follows:

"(...) It is always a matter of making the Christians, the congregation, understand that we as the congregation have a mandate toward the Jews ‒ and most particularly not just at this time, but after they have again been driven out of their land (...)"

Here we must point out without any ambiguity that the Christian congregation has received only one mandate from its Lord:

Mk 16,15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16,16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. Mk 16,15-16;

So we do not have any special mandate "toward the Jews" ‒ on the contrary, the Lord tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel of salvation through grace. And as Paul tells us in 1Tim 2,3-6, it is also the will of the Father that all human beings should come to the knowledge of the truth.

According to the will of God, then, we must work for the salvation of all human beings (not just of Israel) through their coming to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our task, this is our goal. But the Lord also tells us:

Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city.

Mt 10,14 "Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 10,15 "Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Mt 10,14-15;

And when Ms. Weitzel then writes above that these Christians in the state of Israel have had to sign a contract to the effect that they will "NEVER say anything about Christ", this means that the congregation is just unable to fulfill its worldwide mandate, based on the Lord’s command above, in Israel itself.

The concern that we as Christians might again have blood on our hands as a result of bringing Jews to Israel is thus completely without foundation. For as we have said already, first of all this is not a mandate addressed to the congregation ‒ these Christians are acting on their own personal responsibility. And on the other hand we do indeed, as the congregation, have the mandate of bringing people the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only possible path to their salvation. And if we fail to do this, then Scripture tells us that we actually do have blood on our hands:

If you do not warn the wicked he shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.

Eze 3,18 "When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 3,19 "Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. Eze 3,18-19;

Just as it would have been possible, on the basis of adequate scriptural study, to detect and refute the attempt of some preachers and biblical teachers to persuade the brethren that they are obliged to bring atheist Jews from Russia to Israel, so too the question "what should be done" has been answered by the Bible. First of all we must recognize that there have always been two contrary character lines in the fleshly descendants of Abraham, and God has made his choice between them.

It begins right away with Abraham’s own sons: Isaac, the son of Sarah the free woman, and founding father of the Jews; and Ishmael, the son of Hagar the maidservant, and founding father of the Arabs. Ishmael represented the attempt by the barren Sarah to have a son, even if Abraham begat him with her maidservant Hagar. Isaac was the son promised by God, whom Abraham begat at 100 years of age and Sarah gave birth to at 90 years of age, and on whom God’s blessing rested.

In the sequel we see the same pattern emerging in the sons of Isaac: Esau, who actually sold his birthright for a lentil stew and then wanted it back again when it was too late (Gen 25:29-34); and Jacob, who was loyal to his God and who was blessed and rewarded by God as a result, even against the will of his father (Gen 27:27-29). He also received from God the name "Israel".

With Moses and his brother Aaron we find another clear instance. When Moses was with God on the mountain of Horeb (Sinai) for forty days and forty nights, to receive the Ten Commandments, a part of the Israelites argued that Moses was not coming back anyway and importuned Aaron to make them a new God. Aaron, as the deputy of his brother, gave way to their pressure and made for the Israelites a golden calf. And they danced around it, fell on their knees and worshiped it (Ex 32:1-35).

Our Lord Jesus Christ too experienced these two sides ‒ the ones who shouted "Hosanna" and strewed palms before his path, and the others who shouted "Crucify him" to Pontius Pilate. These were the ones who called him a blasphemer and imposter and handed him over to be crucified. Then too he selected his disciples from among the first group, and revealed to the other group that they were the sons of the devil (Jn 8:44).

Jn 10,24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." 10,25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 10,26 "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. Jn 10,24-26;

And so to this very day we can recognize these two groups among the Jews. On the one hand there are those who want to set things right themselves, and then distort the prophecies retrospectively in such a way as to make them somehow "fit". In 1948, in contravention of the statements of Scripture and the will of God, they occupied Palestine by force of arms, drove out the inhabitants and established a Jewish state. They are then the "house of Israel" in the prophecy of the prophet Hosea below, on whom God has no compassion and from whom he has taken away his mercy completely

I will not deliver the house of Judah by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen

Hos 1,5 "On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." 1,6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. 1,7 "But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen." Hos 1, 5- 7;

Zech 4,6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. Zech 4, 6;

At the time they spread about the lie that this was the gathering of the people of Israel by God, and it is they who still lead the Christians by the nose today when they assert that it is written in the Bible that the Christians are obliged to bring the Jews from all parts of the world to Israel. As we can see, both lies have been joyfully welcomed by Christians in the USA and in Europe, and the Zionist regime in Jerusalem has been heaped with sympathy and financial support.

It is quite different with the "house of Judah" referred to by the prophet, on whom God will have mercy and whom he will save, but not with weapons or war. These are the Orthodox Jews true to their faith who trust in their God and humbly accept what the Almighty has seen fit to give them. They did not go to Israel but remained in the Diaspora, as Scripture commands. They will only return when the prophecies reach fulfillment, when their Messiah returns and brings them back to their land. And if the impression is not misleading, it is these same faithful Jews in the Diaspora worldwide from whose descendants a remnant will come ‒ the remnant that will convert to their God and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isa 10,20 Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 10,21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. 10,22 For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. 10,23 For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land. Isa 10,20-23;

These Orthodox Jews are also slandered by the Zionists, being abused as "apes" or worse (Discourse 46), and have to protect themselves against the deceit and trickery coming from Jerusalem, as the following extract shows (link supplied by Ms. Weitzel).

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Press Conference The Holocaust – A Memorial of Another Kind The authentic Jewish voice has its say! 00, 2010-01-27)

Religious Jews, survivors and victims of the Holocaust, will for the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, make a public appearance in Germany and express their view of history. They contend that the leadership of the Zionist state has no right to exploit the Jewish victims of World War II for their political goals, to evade criticism, or as an "alibi" for the oppression of the Palestinian people. This is especially true since the Palestinian people share no responsibility for the crimes of the Hitler regime. These religious Jews come to deliver a new message: a plea for justice, together with the religious conviction that God is ultimately behind the steering wheel of history. At the same time, they appeal for a new beginning in relations between Jews and non-Jewish Germans, on the basis of mutual respect. What lessons do religious Jews learn from the Holocaust? And where does Torah-loyal Judaism stand today on the issue of the slow genocide being committed against the Palestinian people?

The above questions and more will be discussed by the following speakers:
Rabbi Moshe Ber Beck (USA) Holocaust survivor
Rabbi Yisrael David Weiss (USA) Grandparents murdered in Auschwitz
Rabbi Ahron Cohen (UK) Holocaust survivor
Rabbi Jouseph Antebi (Jerusalem, NL, Berlin) Victim of Zionist persecution
Reuven Cabelman (Berlin, Antwerp) Berlin spokesman for the Neturei Karta International
organizer of the Press Conference Moderator: Christoph Hörstel (Neue Mitte)

Video of the Press Conference

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Neturei Karta Condemns Israeli Attack on Humanitarian Flotilla / 2010-06-11)

Citizens worldwide protest the attack on the Humanitarian Flotilla

Demonstrations and protests are taking place in international cities such as London, New York, Washington DC, Montreal and Jerusalem

For updated information, we will be updating this page on our website:

https://www.nkusa.org/activities/Press/20100603Flotilla.cfm
Neturei Karta condamne l’assaut d’Israël contre la Flottille
DISCURSO PRONUNCIADO EL DIA 31 DE MAYO DE 2010

Press Release issued 31 May 2010

"Authentic Orthodox Jewry worldwide decries unequivocally the cold-blooded slaughter carried out by the Zionist occupational forces against innocent, peaceful and freedom-loving noble activists committed to peace and human rights," said Rabbi David Feldman of Neturei Karta International. "This brutal attack took place in international waters on ships bearing humanitarian aid for our brethren, the Palestinian residents in the besieged Gaza Strip. It was an explicitly illegal act which breaches, in a serious manner, basic G-dly human rights, justice and law.

"This kind of behavior is, unfortunately, only to be expected from the Zionists," he continued. "Their state’s entire existence was built from the very start on Heresy, robbery and murder. They oppressed, murdered and expelled an entire people from its land.

Rabbis of Neturei Karta participate in the Gaza Freedom
March in Gaza City, on December 27, 2009

"All of this pains us especially because it was done in the name of the entire Jewish people and in the name of the Jewish religion. The truth is that the Torah totally opposes everything they do. The Torah teaches us mercy, the Torah forbids murder, and the Torah forbids stealing. According to the Torah, the entire land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea must be returned to the Palestinian people." "Jews are in exile by Divine decree, and any attempts at ending this Almighty’s decree is a rebellion against G-d. The Torah teaches that a rebellion against G-d cannot be successful.

"We find it imperative to clearly declare that the State of "Israel" does not represent the Jewish people, and certainly not the Jewish religion. They have no right to speak in our name, nor in the name of the holy Torah. They profane the Holy Land with their abominations, slaughters and countless other actions that emanate from this illegitimate State. Furthermore, the actual existence of this State is illegitimate as the holy Torah strictly and explicitly forbids any Jewish rule over the Holy Land. When the Zionist movement arose a century ago, our rabbis all warned us not to have any connection with them.

Members of Neturei Karta join Viva Palestina aid convoy
to Gaza in July 2009, they donated a truck of medical aid

"The Zionists with their perversion of Judaism have blackened the name of Jews and the Torah throughout the world. They are the worst enemies of G-d, of the Torah and of the true Jewish people who have always remained faithful to G-d in all circumstances. Subsequently, they are the greatest cause of exacerbating anti Semitism around the world.

"Jews throughout the centuries have always been on excellent terms with their Arab neighbors. The past centuries, during which Sephardic Jewry lived in thriving communities all over the Arab world, were a golden age between our peoples. Who brought this golden age to an end? Only political Zionism. Actually, even today there are some Arab and Muslim countries that still have Jewish communities living peacefully in their midst. And even the Palestinians (from both major parties) have declared that they have no problem with Jews living amongst them; they are only opposed to political Zionism.

"We express our profound condolences to the families of the murdered innocents, as well as our heartfelt wishes for speedy recoveries to all those wounded by the Zionist occupational forces. May Heaven send you complete and swift healing.

"We hope and we pray for a peaceful and speedy end to the Zionist state. Then Jews will be able to live peacefully in Palestine under a Palestinian government, just as they live under other Arab countries to this day.

"May we merit the fulfillment of the prophets’ promise of the revelation of G-d’s kingship over the entire world, at which time all peoples will serve Him in unity."

Neturei Karta International

Neturei Karta International
P. O. Box 1316, Monsey, NY 10952
www.nkusa.org

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

"Israel makes a ploy of the holocaust and anti-Semitism. / Prof. Moshe Zuckermann – KURIER daily newspaper, 2010-10-21

He was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, as the son of Polish holocaust victim, and he has criticized Israel sharply on repeated occasions. The key thesis of Moshe Zuckermann, a professor of history and philosophy who has just brought out a new and complex book (Antisemit ‒ published by Promediaverlag, 208 pp, EUR 15.90 – German) is that many Jews and Israeli politicians "make a ploy of the holocaust and anti-Semitism in order to gag their critics."

KURIER: Isn’t your thesis actually a bit extreme?

Moshe Zuckermann: Not at all. Look here, anti-Semitism does exist of course, and it should be opposed, wherever it shows its ugly visage. But what I mean is the accusation of anti-Semitism, which is used by the powerful to make political capital and with which they try to annihilate their critics. Anyone who criticizes Israel is not automatically anti-Semitic. This would be a complete loss of distinctions. It must be possible to call a spade a spade when it comes to Israel’s barbaric policy of injustice against the Palestinians.

You think this doesn’t happen enough outside the Arab world?

Yes, above all in Germany, where it is taboo to criticize Israel, right up to the highest echelons of politics. The German left above all has developed a blind solidarity with Jewishness. But people like Michel Friedman or Henry M. Broder (both Zionist Jews who take up the cudgels to defend Israel against its critics, FH) have absolutely no idea of Israeli realities. I am speaking in this connection of a kind of philosemitism, which is based on the same resentment and so is nothing other than anti-Semitism inverted.

Do you not get applause for your thesis from quarters to which you would rather not be indebted?

Of course that has been the case for years, but the alternative would be to keep silent on what I think is right and important. But I won’t let myself be hijacked or gagged.

How do you see the role of Israel in the Middle East conflict with the Palestinians?

Even after 40 years of an occupying regime, Israel is still trying to make out that it is a victim. Finally it comes down to a quite simple question ‒ does Israel want to exist, and can it not understand that it is heading into a self made abyss. Accordingly there are just two possibilities. Israel gives back the occupied territories, with the risk of a civil war ensuing. Or it does not, and then there is the risk of a regional war which ‒ being conducted with new weapons ‒ would reduce half the Middle East to rubble and ashes. That would be the end of the state of Israel and of Zionism.

(This interview conducted by Walter Friedl appeared in the Austrian daily KURIER, 21 October 2010.)

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

WikiLeaks exposed the true Mideast conflict / Ari Shavit, Haaretz daily newspaper, 2010-12-03

Julian Assange is a dangerous criminal. This strange man with his long blond hair and misanthropic expression is not merely a cyberterrorist of a new kind. He is not merely a delusory anarchist humiliating the greatest power on earth. He is not merely an uninhibited megalomaniac disrupting modern diplomacy and undermining the world order. Assange is a dangerous criminal because he has shattered the accepted dogma on the understanding in the Middle East in the 21st century.

This dogma stated the following: The main problem in the Middle East is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The main problem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the occupation. The main problem in the occupation is the settlements. Therefore if we just stop the settlements, the occupation will begin to end, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be solved and the Middle East will be stable.

In the last decade, this dogma became fixed and was sanctified. It became a kind of core belief that cannot be questioned. This was the truth they swore to in the White House, the Elysee Palace and 10 Downing Street. This was the truth they reported in The Washington Post, Le Monde and The Guardian. This was the truth that incorporated the supreme moral gravity that formed the worldview of enlightened elites in the West and directed the policies of the Western powers.

Then along came Assange and shattered the dogma. The secret documents that WikiLeaks published proved that the settlements, the occupation and even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were not the main problem in the Middle East. The confidential e-mails proved that the world they were talking about in Washington, Paris and London was an imaginary world. Assange proved that there was no connection between the real Middle East and the Middle East they talk about in The Washington Post, Le Monde and The Guardian. He revealed that the entire Arab world is currently busy with one problem only – Iran, Iran, Iran.

There is no doubt about it – Assange is a dangerous criminal. But he is dangerous not because he penetrated the Pentagon’s information systems but because he revealed the Western intelligentsia’s lack of intellectual integrity. Assange is dangerous not because he leaked state secrets on an unprecedented scale but because he revealed to us all that the West’s hegemonic discourse is superficial and mendacious. Assange is dangerous not because he embarrassed the West’s allies but because he proved that the West is contaminated by political correctness that cuts it off from the diplomatic reality. Assange placed a giant mirror in front of us all and proved the extent to which we had been duped in recent decades. A false dogma has prevented us from looking logically at the historic challenge facing us.

But let’s not confuse things. The settlements are indeed a disaster. The occupation is intolerable. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dangerous. But now that the blond misanthrope has opened our eyes, we must no longer shut them. The confidential e-mails must be read and reread so they can be understood. There is no chance for the current diplomatic process, they say. There is no chance of signing an Israeli-Palestinian agreement as long as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is living under the menacing shadow of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There is no chance of regional peace as long as the Arab world is living under Tehran’s incessant threat.

After all, just as the Egyptian president, the Saudi king and the Gulf emirs whisper, Iran is the heart of the problem. Iran is the source of the poison and the source of the consternation. As long as Iran is growing stronger, is seeking nuclear weapons and is terrorizing the Middle East, there is no chance for peace.

The lesson is a bitter one. If Iran develops nuclear weapons, peace will disappear. A nuclear Iran will deal a final blow to the chance of achieving a compromise between Israelis and Arabs. Therefore the dove of peace has to be extremely hawkish toward Iran. The peace-seeker must deal with Iran.

The opposite is also true. Anyone who wants to appease Ahmadinejad is betraying peace. Anyone who takes a lenient view of the ayatollahs is abandoning Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Abu Mazen. It’s true that a moratorium on the settlements will help in the struggle against the centrifuges. But only such a moratorium will make it possible to dismantle the settlements. When we rise from the ruins of the dogma, the strategic order of things is utterly clear – Iran first.

Haaretz, 03.12.10

Ari Shavit is a senior correspondent at Haaretz Newspaper and a member of its editorial board.

It would be something of a miracle if Haaretz failed to defend the standpoint of the United States. By publishing secret Pentagon documents Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has cast light on the background to American policies ‒ as well as those of other nations. And immediately he is branded as a "criminal", a "misanthrope", as an IT terrorist, a delusory anarchist, a megalomaniac and so on.

Even before reading the rest of Ari Shavit’s article, we can tell from the very first lines that the real misanthrope is located not in London but at the Haaretz offices in Jerusalem. Evidently the curbs on freedom of speech and opinion in Israel are not just restricted to the Jewish Agency’s ban which prevents immigrants from preaching the gospel or talking about Jesus Christ in Israel. Now it even seems to be viewed as a capital offense in Israel if anything is done to demythologize the edifice of lies that is American politics.

But these first few sentences likewise permit us to recognize the actual aim of this parade of indignation. In fact the writer is not at all concerned with the problems these revelations cause to the USA, but rather ‒ what else can be expected of an Israeli writer? ‒ with the problems of Israel and with the way in which this whole business can be exploited to Israel’s benefit. And so while Julian Assange is described as a "dangerous criminal", it is not because of his having brought state secrets to light but because he has supposedly revealed the true background to the conflict in the Middle East. .

With great elegance and skill, and quite in the style of Mark Antony’s address to the people of Rome, Mr. Shavit then uses the momentum of events to redirect the increasing pressure of the international community of nations on Israel because of the settlements in Jerusalem to a different object ‒ the Arabs, and in the last resort Iran. According to this argument the settlements are admittedly a "disaster", the occupation of Palestinian territory is "intolerable" and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "dangerous". But the key to the problem is not the Jews, who are actually responsible for all this, but the Arabs, and Iran in particular. .

Of course as Shavit sees things, it is not Israel who has made peace impossible with all these problems and by refusing to change anything to date. Instead, he tells us, "Iran is the source of the poison and the source of the consternation. As long as Iran is growing stronger, is seeking nuclear weapons and is terrorizing the Middle East, there is no chance for peace." If Israel itself, in contravention of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and with the tacit approval of the UN, already has 200 atomic warheads ready for action ‒ as a result of which Iran may well feel compelled to resort to atomic weaponry in self-defense ‒ this is a matter which Mr. Shavit, with some nerve as we may think, does not see fit to mention. .

Finally Mr. Shavit sets up a causal connection which must appear altogether familiar to anyone who has been following developments in the Middle East. He balances Tehran’s construction of centrifuges for the production of weapons grade uranium against the building of settlements in Jerusalem, and observes: "It’s true that a moratorium on the settlements will help in the struggle against the centrifuges. But only such a moratorium [on the centrifuges] will make it possible to dismantle the settlements."

The logic of this cannot fail to remind us of a statement by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who in answer to the question why he did not consent to Israel’s building of the settlements, said in effect "Israel occupies our country and builds settlements in this country. If we were to consent to the building of settlements, there would be peace. But then at the same time we would lose our country. Therefore, only Israel’s returning our country to us would give us a basis for giving our consent to the settlements."

But the Israeli government is well aware that Iran is not involved here, and so has already worked out plans for building further settlements in the Palestinian West Bank territories which it occupies. Haaretz has actually published an internal report of the Israeli civil administration in the occupied West Bank territories according to which the civil administration, which is attached to the Ministry of Defense, has drawn up maps designating the areas that are suitable for the construction of new settlements. In all something like 10% of the entire area of West Jordan has been marked out in this way.

And quite in keeping with Mr. Shavit’s conclusion, at the end of his article ‒ "When we rise from the ruins of the dogma, the strategic order of things is utterly clear ‒ Iran first" ‒ so the same applies by analogy to the Palestinians: if we take into account the consequences for both sides, here too the strategic order of things is utterly clear – Israel first.

Discourse 101 – The "Israel movement" in the Christian congregations / Christian Evangelical Zionism.

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(Is Israel’s right to the state founded in 1948 written in the Bible? / International Network of Reconciliation 00 2010-02-16

Since two thousand years Israel is without God

Israel in the light of the Bible.

Does the Bible say that the Antichrist will be a Jew?

The Israel movement in the Christian congregations

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(Must the Christians bring the Jews to Israel for their salvation? / International Network of Reconciliation 01, 2010-04-16)

The obduracy of the people of Israel.

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(Press Conference The Holocaust – A Memorial of Another Kind The authentic Jewish voice has its say! 00, 2010-01-27)

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(Neturei Karta Condemns Israeli Attack on Humanitarian Flotilla / 2010-06-11)

Citizens worldwide protest the attack on the Humanitarian Flotilla

Press Release issued 31 May 2010

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"Israel makes a ploy of the holocaust and anti-Semitism. / Prof. Moshe Zuckermann – KURIER daily newspaper, 2010-10-21

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WikiLeaks exposed the true Mideast conflict / Ari Shavit, Haaretz daily newspaper, 2010-12-03