Webmaster note:.
The following is a transcript of part 1 of a 3-part news program aired in March 2001. I have selected this specific news program and transcribed it below for your information in order that you may be informed about the true reasons behind the Isralie and Palestinian problems. This program discusses and explains the difficulties involved in achieving peace between Israel, the Palestinians, and all surrounding Arab nations, and how it all began over 4,000 years ago. I'm certain you will consider this very interesting and informative.
The words which I have transcribed below, to the best of my ability, are the words of Hal Lindsey and Cliff Ford. I give them my thanks and appreciation for such an eye opening discourse.

JERUSALEM: THE WORLD IN CONFLICT
TRANSCRIPTION:
The most recent effort to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has collapsed in failure, as have all efforts in the past. The Israelis blame the Palestinians. The Palestinians blame the Israelis. Both sides accuse the United States of being biased for the other, and the stumbling block as announced by President Clinton as the summit closed, is Jerusalem. We all know how difficult the problem of Jerusalem is. Always it comes down to Jerusalem, and when it does, it stops the peace process dead in it's tracks.
Why is this dusty little city in the middle of a tiny little country so valuable to both sides? Jerusalem has none of the qualities that explain the founding of a great city. It is not a seaport. It isn't on a river. It isn't on a trade route or caravan trail. It isn't on a major natural source of fresh water. It isn't strategically located for military defense purposes. There has been only one reason for the centuries of passion that have been lavished upon it. Jerusalem's earliest history ties it to the realm of the spirit and God. It was first mentioned in Genesis 14:18-20, circa 2000 BC, as being the home of Melchizedek. He was the mysterious and great priest of the Most High God to whom even Abraham bowed.
Melchizedek's city was then called Salem, or Peace in Hebrew. After this it was the home of a fierce people called the Jebusites. Many of these were giants standing more than eight feet tall. Even Joshua and Caleb could not drive them out. So until King David, the city was called Jebus, and the Israelites lived there under the Jebusite rule. David finally defeated the Jebusites with an amazing victory in spite of their heavy fortifications and huge warriors. Psalm 24 records how the Jebusites taunted David and his army and mocked the God of Israel. That was their big mistake. David entreated Israel's God to enable him to defeat them, and he did. So a little over one thousand years before the birth of Christ, David established the city as the eternal capital of Israel by God's command. The city that had been called Jebus and Salem became Jerusalem. The city of peace. The City of David.
It was King David of Israel who, on instructions from God, bought a threshing floor in Jerusalem for 600 shekels of gold. The owner of the land was willing to donate the land but David insisted, wisely, in paying the full price for a clear title for what is today, the most strategic 35 acres on earth, the Temple Mount. It was on this site that David built an altar and offered burnt offerings. It was on this same site that his son Solomon was directed to build God's Temple. Jerusalem became the one place on earth where God's manifest presence dwelt, in the Holy of Holies of Solomon's temple. This is why the city is much more than a plot of earth, or stones, or buildings, or culture, or ancestral tradition to the sons of Israel. Without Jerusalem, Judaism has no ultimate meaning. Without Jerusalem, Israel's God has no place for meeting with His people. Indeed, without Jerusalem, the chosen people of God feel there is no validity to their existence. This is almost an impossible burden for any city to bare. Yet this is the burden that is forever part of the legacy of Jerusalem.
And so it has remained for three thousand years ever since it's founding by Israel's greatest king. Love for this city and all it represents preserved the Israelites as a unique and peculiar people down through the centuries of dispersion. Every year in the homes of Jews throughout the world, Passover ended with the prayer, "Next year in Jerusalem".
In 70 AD the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple completely. The gold that decorated it melted down between the massive stones of the temple itself. For the soldiers to get to the gold, they virtually dismantled it piece by piece. Thus was Jesus' prophecy of 37 years earlier literally fulfilled. He said, "Not one stone will be left standing on another." The temple, the seat of God's earthly throne, was lost to the Jews. It was now the time of the Gentiles. All that remained was the hope of "Next year in Jerusalem". Ironically, the city has experienced little of that for which it was named. Peace has been more of a prayer of hope than a reality.
What Jesus predicted about the interim condition of Jerusalem from it's destruction until it's return to the Israelites at the time of His Second Coming became literally fulfilled. Listen to Jesus' prophecy. "And they, Israel, shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Luke 21:24)
In Jerusalem's early history, it was caught between the conquest ambition of the great empires of antiquity. Israel sits in the middle of a land bridge that connects three continents. Anyone who wants to build an empire that embraces Asia, Africa, and Europe has to conquer the key span in the middle of that bridge, Israel. And since it's capitol is Jerusalem, it came in for one siege after another. The Assyrians, the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, all in turn, sounded their war trumpets at the gates of Jerusalem. God miraculously delivered Jerusalem many times. However, their greatest danger was never from without, but from within.
Because of Israel's frequent departure from faith in their God, He brought upon Jerusalem a destruction about which His prophets had long warned them. This happened twice in their history exactly fulfilling the prophetic warnings that had been given. In the long period since Jerusalem's second destruction by the Romans, the battle for Jerusalem has become the flash point of a four thousand year old conflict.
The family feud between two half brothers, Ishmael and Isaac, whose father was Abraham, has exploded upon our current scene and dragged the whole world into it. The Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael. They have always believed that the Israelites cheated them out of their inheritance. About AD 622, this deep age-old resentment became part of a new religion that was started by one of Ishmael's sons, Mohammed. The religion of Islam is intensely woven around the Arab culture and passions. So wherever Islam has been embraced, Ishmael's passion of hatred toward the Jew has been embraced with it.
Many years after Mohammed's death, some teachers of Islam began to claim something that would bind religious passions of all Muslims to Jerusalem forever. A myth was created that Mohammed and his horse were miraculously flown to the temple mount in Jerusalem on the night of his death. Mohammed ascended into Heaven, according to this myth fabrication, on his horse from the rock on which Abraham had been willing to sacrifice his son (the Temple Mount Mosque now encloses this rock). And of course they believe that the son to be sacrificed was Ishmael, not Isaac. Based on this teaching, Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam. Only Mecca and Medina are seen as more important. The blood that has been spilled because of this fervent belief is beyond calculation. And yet the past is merely a prelude to the blood that is soon to be spilled over this same issue. According to the prophet Zachariah, this ancient conflict between Ishmael and Isaac over Jerusalem will be the fuse which starts the last war of the world. And now that this issue has been made part of both Islam and Judaism, solving it is impossible. Muslims believe to give Jerusalem to the Israelites is to confess that the Koran, the holiest teachings of Islam, were wrong. Israelis believe that to give up Jerusalem is the same as saying their Holy Bible is wrong, and that all the sufferings in exile was for nothing.
Now to sum all this up, this is what the Jews believe is at stake here. Jerusalem is part of being a Jew. And part of being a Jew is Jerusalem. Without one, the other cannot exist. It is the city of promise. Isaiah predicts that Jerusalem will be the world's capitol city during the Messiah's one thousand year reign on earth. The possession of Jerusalem is viewed as critical for the survival of the Israelites.
To the Jew, if Jerusalem ceases to be, there is no longer reason for Israel to exist.
God Himself calls Jerusalem His Holy City at least eleven times. It is the only city on earth so designated. God declares "It is the city called by My Name". As I previously mentioned, Jesus said, "Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
Jerusalem remained in the hands of the Romans and Byzantine until AD638. The invading Muslims drove them out and held the city until the eleventh century. It changed hands a number of times after that. Then came the Crusaders. The city was passed back and forth between the Crusaders and the Muslims until the thirteenth century. Egypt took over in the fourteenth century. Jerusalem fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1517. The city was virtually ignored for the next 500 years. Jerusalem became of little importance in the Muslim Turkish empire.
The final stages of Jerusalem's destiny really began when the British General Alanby captured Palestine and Jerusalem in 1917. (Webmaster Note: Until that time, Israel, as a nation, had not existed for almost two thousand years. The land which is now Israel and the land now occupied by the Palestinians was called Palestine, and was considered, at that time, an Arab nation) When the British terminated their mandate over Palestine May 15, 1948, the Israelites declared the state of Israel. It is only when the Jews returned and wanted Jerusalem that the Muslims suddenly discovered this current all-consuming passion for Jerusalem. History verifies this statement.
In spite of nearly twenty centuries of war, conquest and neglect, Jerusalem survived, and so did the Jews. Confidently praying each Pass Over "Next year in Jerusalem". More than twenty five hundred years ago the psalmist wrote, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Psalm 137:5,6)
The Israelis claim the city as their historical capitol. In other words, they claim the right of prior ownership. The Israelis have a legal claim to the city as the spoils of war also. The Israelis captured the city in 1967 when they defeated the invading Arab armies, including Jordan. Israel also captured what was historically Judea and Sumaria. Today it's called West Bank.
When the largely migrant farmers who had been sent to Palestine to prevent Isralie occupation were abandoned by all Muslim countries. The fleeing refugees were shoved into refugee camps by their own Muslim brothers. They were then presented to the world as the Palestinian people. From one of these refugee camps emerged Yasir Arafat, and over night the refugees were transformed into something not known before, the Palestinian people. Such status was never given by the centuries of Muslim rule before Israel was born.
President Clinton said that the Camp David talks failed because the two sides refused to compromise over Jerusalem. Jerusalem was founded, as we said, by King David. God gave title deed to Jerusalem, and only to one people – the Jews. Jerusalem is the only city with a place in eternity according to the Bible. The Arabs say Jerusalem is their holy city despite the shabby treatment it has historically received, and because of the lack of any reference to it in the Koran.
By mid nineteenth century, the city was a neglected back border where Jews were in the majority. Israel refuses to divide the city, claiming it must remain their eternal undivided capitol forever. Yasir Arafat on the other hand demands the city be divided and the half with the Temple Mount be given to him for his capitol city. Both sides can't be right.
King Solomon was once faced with a similar perplexing dilemma. Two women both claimed the same baby. Solomon offered to divide the child in half. One woman agreed, the other refused. Solomon concluded the one with the right to the child was the one who refused to divide it. It will take someone with the wisdom of Solomon to get these two sides to agree on anything where Jerusalem is concerned.
At the Camp David meetings, the US and Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak supported a plan that would give Arafat his Palestinian state and his capitol in Jerusalem. You'd think that finally Arafat would jump at the offer. If peace were truly on his agenda, that is. That solution would have expanded Jerusalem's borders and then redivide the city. The expansion would include West Bank Jewish settlements into the new Isralie city of Jerusalite, which is Hebrew for Jerusalem. The new borders would also incorporate Arab villages into the city. That portion would become the Arab capitol. The Palestinian parliament would be in the Arab neighborhood of Abudise inside of the dome of the Temple Mount. This slight of hand with borders of the city would give the Arabs what they previously wanted. Arafat turned it down. It was a good thing for Barrack that he did. The Jerusalem mayor was furious. As he put it, it is either a divided Jerusalem or it is not. Any compromise involving Jerusalem would have failed anyway. Nearly a tenth of Israelis are ultra orthodox Jews. Without their support, Barak's government would collapse like a house of cards. If Arafat had accepted the compromise, it is unlikely he would have survived long enough to sign it.
The prophet Zachariah said that in the last days, Jerusalem would become a burdensome stone for all nations (12:2). And that all who tried to shoulder that burden would be cut to pieces or destroyed. The warning is given to all peoples of the earth.
The prophet Daniel prophesied that someone would come up with a workable peace plan. In Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, it speaks of someone confirming a covenant between Israel and her enemies. The covenant is broken in the middle of the seven year period through an incursion into the same holy places currently responsible for Camp David's failure. Do you see a pattern here?
Today the only path to peace involves dividing the indivisible.But a form of peace will come according to the prophets. Somebody will come up with a solution to the thorniest foreign policy problem in the world's history. Hailed as a great peace maker, he will rise to global power.
In 1917, most of the land in the Middle East was given to the Jews. The grant was given to a Jew in gratitude for his invention of a synthetic material to make smokeless gunpowder. But after World War I, the British realized that the Arabs had all the oil. So at the San Remo Italy Conference in 1923, Churchill redrew the map of the Middle East freehand, dividing whole tribes in half and into different nations in the process. Churchill gave away most of the land promised to the Jews in 1917. With a few strokes of his pen Churchill unknowingly set in motion most of the conflicts of the Middle East of the twentieth century. The prophets tell us that Jerusalem will ignite the chain reaction.
Jerusalem, the city of peace, has known only war for most of the last two thousand years. Between the wars, it's various invaders occupied it. When not being contested in battle, it's occupiers and most of the world ignored it. By the nineteenth century, many westerners didn't know if it still existed as a real city. Today it is headline news on almost a daily basis. Now most Americans know more about Jerusalem than any other foreign city. This is exactly the way the Bible predicted it would be thousands of years in advance.
The same prophets also predicted the coming of a peace maker. Those prophecies were dependent on the fulfillment of Jerusalem's unlikely position on the world's center stage. Jerusalem is exactly where it should be in the last days. A powder keg. Both politically and spiritually. The powder keg of the Middle East is tailor made for Daniel's predicted peace maker.
The apostle John spoke of this coming peace maker in the book of Revelation, and he called him the rider on the white horse. He's the first of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. John sees him with a bow, a symbol of war, but no arrows. Daniel says that "by means of peace he shall destroy many".
The stage is set for this peace maker's unveiling. Those who reject God's prophetic word will have no clue as to who this person really is. He will mesmerize the unbelieving world into a euphoric belief that he has finally brought a long-awaited millennium of peace. But this is pseudo peace, and it will fade like a snowflake in the sun.
Islam and Judaism fiery passion for old Jerusalem will explode again in a war and it will escalate into global proportions. The world will be so devastated within three and a half years that only the return of Christ can save mankind from extinction. He will have to immediately reset the earth's ecology so that it can sustain life. Those who survive this terrible period will be immediately gathered outside the walls of Jerusalem in the valley that is then called Jehoshaphat. They will be judged as to whether they believed in the Lord Jesus or not. Those who did will go as mortals into the new millennial kingdom over which Jesus will reign. They will experience the greatest period of peace, prosperity, security, and blessing ever know on this old planet. And Jerusalem will be the center of the world. Jerusalem will finally realize all the dreams and hopes the past generations have looked for. And the only city to be called God's City will be the place where He dwells among men. And His Name will be called at that time Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The eternal Son of the Living God.
For those of you who are not sure where you stand with God – You're not sure that you have been forgiven and accepted into a relationship with God, you can know that right now. Jesus Christ died in your place to purchase a pardon for your sins and make you acceptable for His Presence. You cannot deserve or earn this pardon. You can only receive it as a free gift. But you must claim it by an act of your will or else it's not valid for you. Right now, wherever you are, just bow your head and receive your pardon for sin. Just tell Jesus that you're willing for Him to come in and make your life what He wants it to be. He's the Son of God and He loves you. And in an instant, you will change your eternal destiny. You are forgiven all your sins in one moment. Jesus comes to live in you to give you a new heart with new desires. Don't put this off. Do this right now. You may be left behind to face the most horrible period of tribulation the world has ever known. God loves you and He will give you assurance that you have entered into His eternal family.


SOURCE: http://www.heaven-speaks.com

Wow! were are Nairaland muslims? The one's quick to defend their Arab brothers!