VOLUME 7                    NEWSLETTER              FEBRUARY 21, 1989 

Dear Friends of Israel and “Or Tzion”,

greetings in the wonderful Name of our beloved Lord and Savior Yeshua, from our little family here in Israel to our larger one – YOU – in the U.S. Upon my return to Israel in 1989, I was gripped by severe depression unrelated to homesickness or personal adversity. A dark, heavy blanket of looming evil descended upon me. I struggled as my very soul was being pressed out of me as it were, and barely managed to do a minimum of housework and family cares. When I cried to the Lord like Habakkuk in 1:2-4, He showed me the cause of this paralyzing depression: It was an increase in the presence and strength of the forces of darkness, as manifested in the declaration of the state of Palestine.

“This is the hour of the evil ones, and the power of darkness,” Yeshua said in Luke 22:53. Although a glorious worldwide revival is imminent, one still senses the coming of the night, “when no one can work.”¹ A time so evil as has not been since the world began² has begun to “dawn”:

“The dawn is coming. Victory is coming. And our independent Palestinian state and its capital Jerusalem are only a stone’s throw away,” were PLO chief Yasser Arafat’s words on January 19, 1989 in an address to The Unified National Command of the Uprising. Less than a week after the U.S. opened the dialogue with the PLO, he spoke on Baghdad Radio on December 19th in the same vein: “We are in the last quarter hour… A defined struggle, and intensification of the uprising, continued ‘martyrdom’ and expansion of the confrontation will bring a final victory even closer.”

The evil of this “dawning”, of this “final victory” is so great, that it gripped my soul with a paralyzing depression, wanting to press the dear life out of me³. 

Algiers, November 1988:

The Palestinian National Council declared Judea, Samaria and Gaza a de-facto Palestinian state and Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, the capital thereof. They demanded Israel’s complete withdrawal from those territories, contrary to UN resolution 242, but above all contrary to Scriptures.

The angel Gabriel said to Daniel: “The wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand.”⁴  To this the apostle Paul added: “The coming of the lawless one… shall be with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore G-d sends them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”⁵

“You yourselves know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and when people say, ‘There is peace and security,’ (internationally enforced Middle-East Peace Treaty), THEN sudden destruction will come upon them… and there will be no escape. But YOU ARE NOT IN DARKNESS, BRETHREN, FOR THAT DAY TO SURPISE YOU LIKE A THIEF. For YOU are all sons of the light and sons of the day… So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and sober… For G-d has not destined us for wrath…”⁶

Let us examine more clearly those events in the light of G-d’s Word. The “Sifting” is coming, dear friends! The Lord is beginning to separate the chaff from the grain⁷. 

Not all who say, “Lord! Lord!” are His, and those who through either their activity or passivity share in the evil aggression against Israel, shall also share in G-d’s judgment upon it.

What is happening? Presently we observe that “the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain.” We see “the leaders of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together (international peace conferences) against the L-RD and His anointed, saying: ‘Let us burst their bonds [of occupation] asunder, and cast their cords [of Military and Civil Administration] from us.’”⁸

November 1988: Dr. Nasser Al-Qidwa, deputy permanent observer of the PLO at the UN, requested INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION as the PLO prepared its declaration of an independent state in the territories occupied by Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital. The Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution sponsored by fourty member nations (including the [former] Soviet Union and most of the Arab world with the exception of Egypt). The resolution “condemns Israel’s persistent policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem… and demands… urges… deplores… requests…”

Fourty member states granted the PLO the right to speak directly to the UN Security Council as Palestine, just as any other member nation, despite the fact that it was a known terrorist organization perpetrating countless atrocities  in order to inspire fear and therewith turn the world against Israel. To these men of lawlessness the leaders of the world – including President Reagan and Secretary of State Schultz with the Tunis-Talks⁹  – extended a hand of welcome. The PLO’s new, elevated status puts her now in a class with the Vatican, N. Korea, S. Korea, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland as non member STATES with permanent observer missions.

But --- “G-d Who sits in the heavens laughs; the L-RD has them in derision. He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury. For now “He will awake to punish all the nations, and spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.”¹⁰  To this the prophet Nahum adds: “What do you plot evil against the L-RD? He will make a full end of His adversaries;” and asks, “Did not a plotter of evil against the L-ORD come out from your presence, a counselor of wickedness?”¹¹