Digression 7: Hamas and the Palestinian Movement in Bible Prophecy

I am aware that there are various views in our community as to the identity of Israel’s invader of the last days. Whoever it is, it surely cannot be that the Arab world surrounding Israel will not eagerly join in or be a major part of the attack. The real aims and intentions of Hamas / the P.L.O. are perhaps not so widely known because much of their literature remains in Arabic only. I have taken some time to analyze original sources of Arab rhetoric, and the similarity of wording and intention between them and Bible prophecy is astounding. I am left with no doubt that what is happening in the Middle East right now, especially relating to the P.L.O., is a most definite sign that the Lord’s coming is near. I am grateful to newly baptized converts in Jordan and Lebanon for opening my eyes to many of the following observations. The Hebrew word hamas [basically meaning 'physical violence arising from wicked plans'] is quite common in Scripture, and the usages speak of how God is provoked by hamas to bring judgment upon the enemies of His people (Gen. 6:11-13; Mic. 6:12; Zeph. 1:9) and also to intervene in order to save His people (Ps. 18:49; Ps. 72:14). How amazingly appropriate that an organization actually called hamas has arisen in these last days to do violence to Israel! If Biblical history means anything to us, clearly enough God's intervention in appropriate judgment and salvation cannot be far off.

Psalm 83

“For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head”

The revival of Arab nationalism and its organization in the P.L.O. They lift up / exalt the rosh, the head- they set up an individual leader over them. This could be “Gog…the chief prince” of Ezek. 38, “the king of the north” of Daniel, “the man of sin” of 2 Thess. 2, and all the other references to a latter day Nebuchadnezzar / antiChrist figure.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

The intentions of the P.L.O. are “crafty” in that there is the impression given that they seek co-existence with Israel; they are plotting the destruction of Israel and the Jews under the guise of humanism and peaceful intentions. But the Arab Confederacy  seeks to destroy Israel, as is evident:

“The Palestinian Covenant declares as its central themes a total repudiation of the existence of Israel…the claim that Israel should not exist is implied in almost half of its 33 articles…the demand for the demise of Israel becomes a matter of inevitable necessity” ⁽¹⁾

“Israelis are barely human creatures who may be tolerated in the Palestinian state as individuals, with their numbers reduced” ⁽²⁾

“The question of how to reduce the number of Jews in a Palestinian state…is highlighted by the use of murderous terms against the Israelis” ⁽³⁾

Article 8 of the Palestinian Covenant:  “The conflicts among the Palestinian national forces are secondary, and should be ended for the sake of the basic conflict that exists between Zionism…and the Arab people.” 

Article 9:  “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.  It is the overall strategy.”

Yet a willfully naïve world overlooks these statements because they prefer to believe the “crafty counsel” of the Arabs- that they seek for peaceful co-existence with the Jews in Israel.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

The Arabs argue that Israel / the Jews are not a people:

“Israeli Jews…can only be nationals of (other) states, where nationality is not Jewish.  The demand for the liquidation of Israel thus also stems directly as a necessary conclusion from the definition that the Jews are (already) not a nation…since the state of Israel is not based on true nationalism, it is often described in Arabic as an ‘artificial entity’…the theory that the Jews do not constitute a nation is also recited for the claim of exclusive Arab nationality of the Palestinian state” ⁽⁴⁾

“Victory for the Arabs is possible only in the liquidation of Israel; anything else is capitulation.”

“The Jews are not a nation and thus on principle do not deserve to have a state of their own…there is no atrocity that cannot be justified in order to bring about the liquidation of Israel” ⁽⁵⁾

The desire to “cut them off from being a nation” runs counter to God’s clear statement in Gen. 25:23: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people…”. Note that they were not to be of a different ethnicity, as both Jews and Arabs often claim [for they were from the same parents], but different types of people.

For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: 

The Arabs will unite themselves against Israel. The ‘Palestinian National Covenant’ uses the Arab word Qawmi for ‘National’ – i.e. pan-Arab. Note the RV of Ps. 83:5: “Against thee do they make a covenant”.

“The Palestinian National Authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries [i.e. “all nations around about” Israel- D.H.]…or a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity” – Political Programs of the P.L.O., Article 8.

“The Palestinian National Council calls upon the Arab nation [singular!] to shoulder its pan-Arab responsibilities and to pool all its energies to confront …Zionism” – Political Resolution of the 13^th Palestinian National Council, Article 4. 

The Palestinian Liberation Army is under an “inter-Arab High Command” ⁽⁶⁾

“The Palestinians will have three mottoes:  national unity, pan-Arab mobilization, and liberation” (Are these the three unclean spirits of Rev. 16 that gather the nations around Israel to battle?) – Political Resolution of the 13^th Palestinian National Council, Article 11.

“Nasser used to argue that Arab unity is a pre-requisite for …enabling the initiation of an all-out war against Israel” ⁽⁷⁾

“The Arab ‘nation’ is made up of ‘peoples’ and the (one) Arab homeland comprises the national homeland of these peoples…the relationship of the people and the individual to the overall Arab homeland and nation is called in modern Arabic Qamwiyya (nationalism)…like the trunk of a tree that branches off into offshoots of local patriotism…the splitting up of the Arab region into separate states carved out by the colonial powers.  However, once Arab unity is achieved and the frontiers wiped out…” ⁽⁸⁾

“As for the Egyptians, the Iraqis…they are nothing but the peoples & branches of one nation, the Arab nation” ⁽⁹⁾

“Colonialism shattered the unity of our Arab nation and the unity of our Arab homeland…but this has not prevented the masses…from feeling they are one people” -Resolution of Palestinian National Council, 1971 ⁽¹⁰⁾

The intention is to create a single nation which is home for all the Arab peoples. This may include not only Palestine but all of the land promised to Abraham. “Palestine is inseparable from the Arab homeland” ^{(11)  .}

“King Hussein’s plan for the establishment of a so-called United Arab Kingdom” ⁽¹²⁾

“This crisis has captivated the whole Arab nation throughout the greater Arab homeland” ⁽¹³⁾ – i.e. the earth/land promised to Abraham. It could well be that the entire area promised to Abraham is briefly confederated into one Arab super state once Israel is over-run. In this sense all the prophecies about the eretz (the land / earth) being dominated by Israel’s enemies would then come true.

Not only will the Arabs unite amongst themselves but they will unite many other world forces in their anti-semitism. This must be, for if there is to be a time of trouble for Jacob such as never was, the millions of Jews living in North America are going to have to be persecuted even worse than they were by Nazi Germany. Things are going to have to change- dramatically, and in a very short time. The god of this world is humanism, and it seems that all the world will be united by the Arabs against Israel under this guise.

“The enemy of humanity’ is a phrase  found in Arab writing to designate Israel... Such a description is designed to mobilize support from all peoples, because Zionism is portrayed as an imperialist base that threatens them too” ⁽¹⁴⁾.

Article 16 of the P.L.O. National Covenant:  “The liberation of Palestine, from a spiritual point of view, will provide the Holy Land with an atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard the country’s religious sanctuaries…. accordingly, the people of Palestine look to all spiritual forces in the world for support.”

Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

In these incidents, the Arab invaders destroyed themselves. There is plenty of evidence that the Arab solidarity against Israel is very shallow; they are deeply fractured, and a victory against the Jews could well bring out those differences immediately, in a very bitter and self-destructive way. This final destruction is likely that spoken of in Revelation, where after a brief period of unity against God’s people, “The horns hate the whore”- Babylon / Iraq? The final phase of domination of the land of Israel foretold in Daniel 2 was by a confederacy of “iron and clay”, nations that don’t mix together well; although in the context of dominating Israel, they are united. Particularly the Palestinians and other Arabs are mutually suspicious of each other; and there is ample tension between Iraq [latter day Babylon] and its Arab neighbours.

 “Expressions of suspicion toward the Arab states abound in Palestinian writings.  They contain sharp criticism of discrimination against the Palestinians in the form of restrictive decrees in employment and travel.  Expressions of hatred can even be found against the Arab states” ⁽¹⁵⁾.

“The P.L.O. will retaliate against the Arab states…if they take a line of policy which the P.L.O. regards as inimical to it’s cause” ^{(16) .} 

“Arab governments (are) suspicious of the plan to organize the Palestinians into the Palestinian entity”  ⁽¹⁷⁾.

Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

Clearly enough, the specific focus of the P.L.O. has been on taking control of Jerusalem’s holy places. This is evident in all of Arafat’s speeches. The P.L.O. refuses to cease hostilities against God’s people until they are in possession of Jerusalem.

It seems that the ideal of the P.L.O. is to establish a fake Kingdom of God in the land promised to Abraham, with Jerusalem as the capital, a new ‘temple’ built there, and some antiChrist figure such as Arafat or Saddam ruling there. Their dream is of a land of plenty and true tolerance and equality, glorifying all the principles of humanism- and yet excluding God’s people. All Arabs world-wide would be encouraged to return and live in this Arab superstate, mimicing how the true seed of Abraham will be gathered home in the last days. The P.L.O. plan to send the Jews out of the land into captivity- Saddam Hussein once said just the same. The Babylonian captivity will be re-enacted, and then in a ‘second exodus’ the Jews will return and perhaps build the temple which they were instructed to build in Ez. 40-48. This expulsion of the Jews from the land is foretold in Dt. 28- where disobedient Israel are to be taken into Egypt again by ships, something which has never yet occurred; and also in Zech. 14, where in the last days Jerusalem is to be captured by her enemies and half the city go off into captivity. And then, the Lord returns to the Mount of Olives from which He left.

“Only Jews who undertake to be loyal to the Palestinian state shall be recognized…the recurring motif in Palestinian literature which insists that the Jews who would be allowed (to remain) should relinquish Zionism” ⁽¹⁸⁾

 “Peace in the land of Palestine and the neighboring countries is our heart’s desire.  Above all, a precondition for this is the liberation of Palestine” ⁽¹⁹⁾.

“The right to return includes the right to get back all former Arab property, the return of which will cause the mass eviction of Israelis from Jaffa, Nazareth, etc.” ⁽²⁰⁾

“The establishment of the Palestinian state is bound up with a mass evacuation of Jews from their homes, and they will be thus forced to emigrate” ⁽²¹⁾

Shuqairy, founder of the P.L.O., often made the proposal to send the Jews back to their countries of origin.  Naji Alush repeats the proposal and asks, “Why not ask the U.N. to finance this plan?” ^{(22) .} If accepted, this would unite “all nations” against Israel and her Messiah.

Article 11 of the Constitution of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party read:  “Whoever emigrated to the Arab homeland (Palestine) with a colonialist aim shall be expelled”.

Naji Alush defines “the stand of the Arab national movement on Palestine concerning the Jews” as being that the same number of Jews that were in Palestine before 1914 (i.e. 20,000) should be allowed to remain, and own the 1% of the land they then owned – and the rest be extradited ⁽²³⁾. 

“Permission to stay in Palestine should be granted to the Jews who shall declare that they are giving up the idea of the Jewish state” ^{(24) .}

It is significant that the Arabs demand that the minority of Jews who they would let remain become ‘Arabs’. “Such a state…should be explicitly & emphatically an Arab state with a minority of Jews, who from a national viewpoint, would become Arabs” ⁽²⁵⁾. It could be that this meant they accepted Islam. In this case we would have an analogous situation to that in countless historical types of the last days: Israel accept the idols of the surrounding Arab world and are judged because of it.

Notes

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