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NEWS 60

May 19, 1995

ISRAEL and change ? 'The more it changes, the more it is the same' ?

Benjamin Natanyahu, with all his brilliance, doughty past and keenness for the preservation of Israel's autonomy, has past as Prime Minister. Enter a Labour man. He too is not an undistinguished person, having evidently a standing record in war decorations for his tasks as a leader in the Armed Forces. Unlike Benjamin in the area of speech, he nevertheless is not nearly so unlike in the area of territory as might be imagined, in view of the political past of each and their current associations.

The Advertiser, Wednesday Monday 19 May, cites and reports from him as follows (p.33, in its diminutive but here useful World coverage):

"In no circumstances will we return to the 1967 borders," quoth he to cheering thousands, at his victory in the polls. Jerusalem, reports the news of his speech, 'including the Arab east sector which the Palestinians want to make capital of a future independent state, would (and reverting to direct quotation): "remain united under our sovereignty as Israel capital forever." That sounds quite oddly, much more like Netanyahu than Rabin.

More to our immediate point, it sounds for the present, much more like Biblical prophetic prediction than concepts of a Palestinian entity waving its flag over the appointed Jerusalem, city of the Jews. When the Jewish people have, as they will have, since the word of God makes it clear this is to be, their massive restoration, this time not to the land, as predicted, but to the Lord, the Messiah crucified in Jerusalem, through the power of the Spirit of God, giving them the "spirit of grace and of supplications" so that they "look upon Me whom they have pierced" (God is there speaking, Zechariah 12:10ff.), and mourn for their earlier work in Jerusalem (as in Isaiah 53, 49:7), then the Lord, the King will indeed be seen in the lives of many, crowded masses of Israel, and the time for the restoration of the a vast contingent of the Jews to the 'olive tree' into which the Gentiles have been grafted in the Gospel (Romans 11), will have arrived. One Gospel, one Lord, it will be a triumph of divine grace and wisdom (as in Romans 11:25-33). 
THAT territorial replacement is the most important of all, and will dwarf all others (cf. Ezekiel 36-37) ...

For further on this topic see The Biblical Workman Ch.8, pp. 141-145; Ch.1 pp. 17ff., esp. *3;  and News 52 together with Barbs, Arrows and Balms, Items 13,14, 17 and 20; Appendix 1, Biblical Blessings; also The Shadow of a Mighty Rock, Appendix A and pp. 502-516, 816-836, 755ff..