“Israel is an occupier!” “Israel is an apartheid country!’ “Israel is a colonizer!” “The Zionist regime stole land from the Palestinians!” Over the last few decades, we’ve heard it all. The world has incessantly painted a very negative picture of Israel, imposing a reputation on the only Jewish state in the world that many people have now come to hate. It’s not based on facts, but it continues to be spread. As a result, amid a full-blown war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip to respond to the most extensive twenty-first-century pogrom since the Holocaust, Israel is still seen as the perpetrator.
How could Hamas accuse Israel of occupation when there are no Jews in the Gaza Strip? Hamas governs the Strip and has since 2005, after Israel unilaterally disengaged from the area. After the legislative elections of 2006, Hamas became the ruling party and has been ever since, with no new election in 17 years. The Gaza Strip is 100% Palestinian-ruled and not under “occupation”.
Incidentally, the whole land of Eretz Yisrael is Jewish land and has been for about 4,000 years. For those who care to learn history and learn from it, a timeline of the history of the Land of Israel can be beneficial. Here are just a few of the many markers on this critical timeline. Palestine is never mentioned in any of these Bible passages or anywhere in the Bible, for that matter. Jewish presence in the land has been uninterrupted for about 4,000 years:
1900 BC: God chose Abraham as the Father of the Jewish people (Genesis 12:1-3, 15).
1900 BC: Abraham’s son, Isaac, is given the land as an inheritance and takes the lead over Israel (Genesis 26:2-4).
1850 BC: Isaac’s son Jacob is given the land as an inheritance and rules over Israel (Genesis 28:12-13; 35:12).
1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel (Exodus 3:17, 14).
1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation (2 Samuel 5:1).
970 BC: King Solomon, the son of King David, built the first Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6).
930 BC: Israel is divided into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 11:31-35).
722 BC: The Assyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel (1 Chronicles 5:26).
605 BC: The Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 24-25).
586 BC: Solomon’s Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:8-9).
539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel (Daniel 2).
538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from the Babylonian captivity (Psalm 126:1-6; Ezra 1:1-2).
520 BC: Solomon’s Temple is rebuilt. (Ezra 1:1-6:22).
323 BC: The Ptolemies (Egypt) and Syria (Seleucids) fight over Israel (Daniel 11).
167 BC: The Hasmoneans recapture Israel (Daniel 11).
70 BC: The Romans conquer Israel (Luke 21:20, 24).
20 BC: King Herod (re)builds the Temple (Luke 2:46-47).
6 BC: Yeshua Ha Mashiach (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah and Savior of the world, was born in Bethlehem, Judea (Micah 5:2; Luke 2).
70 AD: Romans destroy the temple (Matt. 23:37-39).
So, the Land has always been a Jewish land if one is to believe the Bible. Yet, for some who do not believe in God or do not hold the Bible as inspired and without error (in the original manuscripts), we must include the modern-day confirmations of 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, the 1920 San Remo Conference, and the United Nations November 17, 1947 vote of Israel as the modern Jewish state, leading to the Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948.
This all goes to prove that biblically, politically, and historically, the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. There were always Jewish people in the Land. While their presence went thick and thin through the centuries, there was NEVER a time in Israel when Jews were not present. Even now, the Jewish people gave away Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is Jewish land occupied by “Palestinians” if you really want to know. Since the Oslo Accords, Israel has worked hard at the idea of “Land for Peace”; yet, here we are, in October 2023, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that it will never work. October 7, 2023, will be remembered as the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. No matter our belief about “occupation,” Hamas has the blood of innocents on their hands.
As much as the Palestinian narrative has wanted us to believe it was, this was never about the land. This has always been about the complete annihilation of the Jewish people and the complete eradication of the State of Israel from the world map. If it ever was about land, why is self-ruling 100% Palestinian Gaza complaining about occupation? If it was truly about land, shouldn’t the inhabitants of Gaza be grateful for their area, as little as it may be? If it was about land, shouldn’t the Gaza residents show an example and grow their region with the funds sent by the global community? Finally, if it was about land, why did Yasir Arafat turn down Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000, when he was offered 100% of Gaza and 95% of Judea and Samaria?
That is because the land grab is an excuse for complete genocide. We just saw what Hamas is capable of. They committed a modern-day pogrom against Jewish people, and they would do it again if given a chance. They must not be given that chance. To be clear, the definition of a pogrom is: “an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group.” This was exactly what took place on October 7, 2023.
The ultimate enemy of Israel is Satan who is obsessed with destroying the Jews. We must understand that this is a spiritual battle before anything else. The Bible promises that when God resumes His program which hinges around the Jewish people, Israel and Jerusalem, there will be casualties, but He also promises to never, ever forsake Israel (Jeremiah 31:35-37). Be it Satan, Hamas or any other antisemitic entity, Israel’s enemies will be defeated. Although this is 2023 and the Holocaust is only 80 years in our rearview mirror, there are those who would have it all happen again. The motto of “never again” seems forgotten and has been replaced by “gas the Jews!” This had nothing to do with the land, it was a pogrom. The goal is the murder of all Jewish people, not just in Gaza but the whole world. Let’s face our new reality. It is open season on the Jewish people again!
