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On May 15th I participated in a rally to protest giving over three Judean villages to total Palestinian control (see pictures net page), which seriously endangers the security and safety of Jerusalem and her suburb’s residents. 

“Abu Dis is the gate into Jerusalem,” said Arafat’s security chief of Jericho, Nasr Yussef, some years ago. “Without Abu Dis there will be no peace.” The “Palestinian governor” of Jerusalem, Jamil Nasser, adds: “No peace treaty with Israel without all of East Jerusalem under our control.” Bassem Obaisi, the project director of the future Palestinian Parliament in Abu Dis said, with a grin, “we are slowly creeping toward Jerusalem.”

An editorial called “The Last Mile” on the PA web site¹⁰  leaves no doubt about it: “Before this year is over, however, and whether or not we have reached an agreement on final status, we will proclaim our sovereignty on our occupied land, and declare Palestinian statehood on the territory occupied in 1967, with Holy Jerusalem as our capital. And we will continue, as a state, to demand the recognition of our rights…”

When Israel celebrated Independence Day on May 10th (calculated according to the lunar calendar) thousands of Arab Israeli citizens hoisted Palestinian flags and ripped and burned Israeli ones in protest.

The main anti-Israel demonstration took place in a Galilee Arab village and included several Arab Knesset members. One of them, Taleb al-Sana, declared that there will be no Mideast peace until "the last grain of the soil of Al-Quds (Jerusalem)^ZU, the historical capital of the Palestinian people, is returned to its ancient owners." 

Jerusalem, of course, never was the "capital" of either the Philistines or the Arabs who lived in that area. The only time Jerusalem was a nation’s capital was during the reigns of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Only since the Return of the Jewish people to their own land is Jerusalem once again the capital of the sovereign state of Israel.

Hence, Jerusalem has indeed been returned to its ancient owners and shall remain their capital, despite of world efforts to the contrary¹¹.

The Galilee demonstration followed months of escalating Arab student unrest at Israeli  universities, resulting in violence on several occasions. Analysts say the growing influence of extremist Islamic groups ^11a) working in Arab towns and villages, plus the apparent imminent emergence of a neighboring Palestinian state, is combining to produce a far more militant attitude among many Arab citizens, especially youthful ones. They warn that Muslim and nationalistic groups plan to demand that many of Israel's Arab towns and villages be annexed to Arafat's new state, slicing away even more land from the tiny Jewish country.

Such a demand would be the prelude to the battle of Armageddon   [Har Megiddo], a battle over the Galilee, where most of Israel's Arab citizens live, claiming to be in the majority there. 

In response, approximately 70,000 people from every corner of the land streamed into the heart of West Jerusalem shouting for the unity of the Land of Israel and its capital Jerusalem, and against any further ceding of land¹².

I thought of the words of the Lord in one of Ezekiel’s visions: “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”¹³  Because in the sight of the Lord and all of Israel we stood against the division of the land and Jerusalem. 

For it is not enough to disagree “quietly” with the dividing up of Israel and Jerusalem. Elijah did not oppose Ahab and the priests of Baal “quietly”, nor did Yeshua disagree “silently” with the abuse of Temple courts for money making purposes. 

The prophet Obadiah and Yeshua leave no room for doubt: passivity means siding with the adversary, with the wrongdoers, with the wicked, with the destroyers and scatterers.

“On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off Jacob’s wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem you were like one of them.”

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”¹⁴