Last week, World Israel News (WIN) reported that “in an internal memo circulated in August, Mark Memmott, CBS News’s senior director of standards and practices, emailed colleagues urging them to ‘be careful with some terms when we talk or write about the news’ regarding Israel and Gaza.”
“One of the many hot-button terms,” WIN explained, “was ‘Jerusalem,'”
Memmott urged in his memo, “Do not refer to [Jerusalem] as being in Israel.”
The CBS senior director continued this by saying, “Yes, the U.S. embassy is there, and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed. The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital. At the same time, the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem—occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war—as the capital of a future state.”
According to WIN, “Memmott insisted that journalists not only refrain from referring to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but deny that any area of the city is part of Israel.”
Wow! I am amazed at how ignorant people can be when it comes to Israel. It is especially shocking when this level of ignorance comes from those who should know better and are supposed to be reporting the truth—unbiased, with facts. It is sad to say that that is not the case among much of the media.
For Mark Memmott at CBS, and really much of the world, to think that Jerusalem is in any way a “Palestinian city” connected to a “long lost land called Palestine” is absurd and entirely ridiculous!
The word Jerusalem isn’t found even once in the Quran, but it is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible. Furthermore, Jerusalem has been connected with the Jewish people for the past 3000 years. That’s history, and CBS, as well as the world, need to do their homework.
Even more importantly, let’s look at the Word of God and see what the God of this universe has to say about Jerusalem.
Psalm 132:13-14 reads, “For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: ‘This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.'”
Ezekiel 5:5 states, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.'” In other words, God has placed Jerusalem in the center of the world.
In Luke 21:24, Jesus Himself prophesies, “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.” This happened in 70 AD. Then Christ says this about Jerusalem, “And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
When did the “time of the Gentiles” begin? 586 BC, when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, and King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. It began then, and it’s going to continue all the way until the end of the Tribulation period, when Israel’s Messiah, Yeshua, returns.
Look at Zechariah 12:3, which states, “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” God is going to make Jerusalem a heavy stone, and He warns that everyone that burdens themselves with it will one day be cut in pieces.
Psalm 48:1-2 are two verses that I especially love. Verse one reads, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, In His holy mountain.”
The “holy mountain” speaks of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the first and second Jewish temples once stood and where we see that Islamic shrine, the Dome of the Rock, standing to this day.
We also read in the Bible that a third temple will be erected during the tribulation period (2 Thess. 2:4, Matt. 24:15, Daniel 9:27). Then in the millennial kingdom, we will also see Ezekiel temple, the millennial temple, stand for 1000 years.
Psalm 48:2 continues, “Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, The city of the great King.”
This is God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem, and the “great King” is none other than the King of the Jews, Jesus Christ.
When I read verses such as these and look at history, I am astonished that the world cannot see that Jerusalem is connected with the Jewish people and not with some made-up fantasy land called “Palestine.” Why is it that more countries with embassies in Israel do not relocate them to Jerusalem, as the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, and Kosovo have? Why is that? I’ll tell you why—because it is a spiritual matter.
Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), wants to rule there. Satan hates what God has established and is doing everything that he can to thwart God and His Word in any way possible. This is the heart of Satan. God says this about Lucifer in Isaiah 14, “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north.” The “mount” again speaks of the Temple Mount.
In verse 14, Satan says, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'” What does God say about that? He says to Satan, “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
That is Satan’s ultimate destiny. That’s the crux of this matter. As I’ve said many times, if Satan can in some way prove God wrong, then the conclusion is that God is a liar, and Satan can’t be judged. That is what we are going through today. That is the crux of the matter of antisemitism. It is Satanic in origin.
However, friends, we also know the rest of the story. Don’t we? Satan will not prevail. That’s what we read in Isaiah 14:15. And the nations that are doing his dirty work today… woe unto them! They will one day have to give an account, and they will be judged severely.
As for CBS and those that think like them, the future of Jerusalem, a Jewish city with a Jewish King, is set in stone in God’s word, sealed by His promises, and never to be changed.
In Zechariah 14:16-19, this is what we read of the future of Jerusalem that’s yet coming to planet Earth, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Do you get the point that God’s making here, over and over? Look at what Jerusalem will be one day in verses 20-21: “In that day ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.”
Do you see that preeminence shift from the Gentiles to the Jewish people? That’s what’s coming when Israel’s Messiah returns. That’s not even discussing “New Jerusalem,” the Eternal City (Revelation 21)!
Jerusalem has a future, and it’s founded in the promises that the God of this universe has made—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We ought to align ourselves with God’s prophetic plan for this world. Until then, let’s continue to do as Psalm 122:6 instructs: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.”
