The Palestinian State

Today has been a busy day for me with emails going back and forth and many asking me what are my thoughts on the passing of observer nation status to the Palestinians in the United Nations. I have heard the use of such words as tragedy, devestating, horrifying, ignorant, as well as several words I can't repeat in our conversations. The majority of those I have conversed with are concerned, possibly even terrified that it is an event heralding our destruction as a people. A ploy used by the world once again to find a way to exterminate our people, wipe us from the face of the earth, while at the same time appearing to be evenhanded, legalistic and if I dare say so, even magnaminous. Far easier to express your hatred in terms of a political exercise, than to acknowledge that the anti-Israeli act of creating a virtual state in the heart of a barely defensible border is nothing more than racism, considering that Israel is what it was always intended to be, a Jewish state. Although it is a multicultural state, it is so only because we as a people have come from all over the world to return to our ancient homeland which God had given us. And I will emphasize that fact. The same God that the Christians claim to pray to as the senior figure of their trinity, that the Muslims pray to, and any others that profess monotheism pray to. The land that their God had also promised and given to us. So, to express anti-Israeli sentiment (I am not referring to the people inhabiting the land but to the concept of a land set aside for the Children of Israel by the Almighty) is in itself an act against God. That is something that they all can easily swipe to the side because their genetically integrated hatred of Jews outweighs any actual love they have for God. But as I told those that asked me today about what does today's events mean, they are nothing more than the world unfolding as it was meant to be. An event caused by our failure to obey the laws of Deuteronomy 20 three thousand years ago, and because of a curse relayed from God, through Samuel to Saul which has now finally come about and we are witness to its outcome.

The Amalekites as an ancient people were never eradicated as had been commanded by God and therefore as a result became part of an eternal curse upon the Children of Israel. To those whom have heard my discourses upon this subject in the past, they are well aware of not only how God’s promises are everlasting, but so are His curses if he intends them to be so. It would be naïve of us to presume that He only issues positive utterances and the opposite cannot be true. As He clearly states to Moses, He is both the merciful God as well as the wrathful God. The Lord of redemption and the Lord of vengeance. The Amalekites were, have been, and are the sword of vengeance that has been dangled above our heads because of our failure to perform as we were instructed.

We first encounter the Amelekites through the wanderings of the Children of Israel through the wilderness. They are the semi-nomadic inhabitants of the desert. Those areas that comprise the Negev, the Sinai and Saudi Arabia. They do have some cities under their control, as is mentioned in the Bible and there is also a king that reigns over them. In other words, they are the forerunners of the Bedouin and Arab populations of what was once referred to as the Trans-Jordan and is now identified in the United Nations as the Palestinian State.

From the Old Testament we know the Amelekites were a fierce and warlike people that given a choice between peace and battle, tended to choose the latter as it was part of their psyche. When Moses and the Children of Israel requested to pass through the land, promising not to turn left nor right, but to march towards Canaan without disturbing the Amelekites’s existence, they were refused. This refusal earned these desert people the anger and retribution of God, and both Jews and Amalekites have been at each other's throats ever since. So as we can see, nothing has changed. Everything is as it has always been. What we call Israel-Palestinian wars and cease fires is nothing more than this never ending cycle that has been perpetuated for three millennia.

The prophet Samuel advises Saul, that God will hand the Amelekites over to Israel and it would be Saul’s responsibility following the battle to ensure that they are obliterated from the face of the earth. Such was to be their punishment as declared by God. Not to be reduced, not to become enslaved, not even absorbed. Total elimination, down to every last man, woman and child. Extremely harsh, when you first examine the judgement, but one that was not open for debate or question. Unlike his dealings with Abraham, God was not willing to negotiate with Saul. As one reads through the book of Samuel I, the impression is given that Saul did eliminate the population after defeating their army in battle. But we know this is not true, because as its described in Samuel II, David had to meet the Amelekites in battle much later, and although he defeated them, they continue to appear in the history of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Whenever there appears to be an opposing force united for the purpose of defeated the Jews, the Amelekites are there. Even until this day when there is to be a thorn driven into the side of Israel, the Amalekites are there, but now we refer to them as the Palestinians.

It tells us in the Bible that when Samuel came to see Saul after the battle, he heard the bleating of the sheep taken from the Amelekites and he was filled with rage at Saul’s defiance of the instructions from God. “Not one sheep, nor cattle beast, nor possession of the Amelekites was to be taken from them and kept alive,” he screamed at Saul. The King defended himself by saying that the animals were taken to be a sacrifice to God to celebrate the victory and that there was no intention to keep the animals alive, which may have been very true, but Saul took Samuel completely literally, and the prophet was anything but literal. He had heard the wails of the children of the Amelekites, the cries of their woman, and the moaning of their men from within the camps of the Israelites. Taking prisoners from what remained of the enemy for household servants was quite common back then. It was part of what was referred to as the spoils of the victors, and it was the presence of these ‘spoils’ for which Samuel condemned Saul and his family.

And the curse was quite clear as it is expressed in the Book of Samuel. Saul’s reign over Israel would come to an end for himself and his family and the Kingdom of Israel would be handed over to its neighbour. Most commonly, this was seen as a prophetic statement alluding to David as the future King. But what kind of prophecy would this be, considering that it was Samuel, himself, that had the authority to anoint a new king if he so desired. If it was that simple, then it really wouldn’t be a prophecy at all, but merely a political decision made by Samuel to demonstrate his displeasure in Saul’s disobedience. And why use the reference to neighbour? Yes, we can argue that the tribe of Benjamin was surrounded by its Judahite neighbours, but this doesn’t make sense in a monarchical structure which had unified the tribal confederacy into a single people. Benjaminites and Judahites were Israelites at this point and not neighbours since the borders were now gone.

No, it is clear that the intent of this curse was to be far more reaching and severe than a mere change of ruling family would suggest. It wasn’t a punishment to be borne by the House of Saul alone; all of Israel was guilty of the sin. In its entirety, the victorious Israelite army had committed the affront to God by disobeying his orders and taking into their households prisoners of war that they intended to keep as part of the share of the spoils of victory. Therefore any curse would have to be a punishment for all of Israel and the Palestinians are merely the continuation of that curse which will continue until such time that the fulfilment of all the other prophecies occurs.

Understanding the prophetic nature of this curse then explains much of what has transpired in the Land of Israel for the past 100 years since the exiles began to return. Exactly as it was foretold, it has now come to pass. The land would seesaw between the Children of Israel and its neighbour. The neighbour was always intended to be a constant and perpetual thorn in Israel’s side. Whenever, the Jews would try to re-establish a Jewish State, or succeed in doing so, then this neighbour is compelled by the curse to continually try to upset the balance and attempt to seize the kingdom or state for itself. In essence, the Palestinians are doing nothing more than following the path that God had set for them three thousand years ago when Israel failed to carry out their instructions and obliterate them as a people.

Israel is not a Kingdom but it is a definitely a state, and what is easily overlooked by the other nations, it is a democratic country, which stands alone in a sea of hostile Arab kingdoms, oligarchies and totalitarianism. But political reality and religious reality don’t have to be perfectly aligned. State, kingdom, republic, or principality, it really doesn’t matter when it comes to curses. The fact remains that its very existence means that the Amelekites, hence the modern day Palestinians, are duty bound to try and deconstruct Israel for no other purpose than it exists.

As mentioned in an earlier article that I had written, the name Palestinian, was born by far more deserving populations than the ones that currently lay exclusive claim to it. It would be far more appropriate to refer to them by their true origins, as descendants of those semi-nomadic people of the wilderness areas of the Transjordan that had infiltrated over the centuries into the Land of Israel during those times when a population vacuum was created by the dispersion of the Jews into foreign lands by the conquering powers. They are Amelekites. They have been so for thousands of years, and they will forever remain so. Once we acknowledge this, then and only then will we have a better understanding of what is happening.

It is imperative that we understand, who these people actually are. To appreciate and understand the rationale for their belligerence and persistent hatred of the Jewish people. This is unnatural detestation of Jews, since it must be remembered that their acts of terrorism have not been isolated to Israelis, but to Jews the world over. An abhorrence that goes far beyond land control issues, since the desire is not merely to have governance over the land but to eliminate the presence of Jews from the land itself. Those that try to suggest that their expressions of ‘driving the Jews into the sea’ were merely rhetoric and not based on actual intent have little understanding of their motivation. Recognising that they are the descendants of the Amelekites makes everything perfectly clear. They have no other options but to act in the manner in which they do because God has ordained them to be so.

Their actions are predetermined by a curse that has been infused into the core of their existence since the days of Saul and Samuel. And not until they become reconciled with their past can this vicious circle be broken. Either they must let the Children of Israel pass safely into the land of Canaan unmolested, thereby rectifying the original curse that had been placed upon their heads, or they must bear the consequence of God’s demand to Saul to eliminate them from the face of the earth, and in so doing, the curse becomes lifted from Israel once and for all. The fulfillment of Deuteronomy 20 is clearly defined by God as the only outcome possible to those that will not permit the Children of Israel to dwell in the land that God had given them. Clearly the choice of how this is to end is in the hands of the Palestinians.

So as I have said to everyone that has written to me today, what occurred in the United Nations this 29th day of November 2012 is nothing more than what was predicted would happen by Samuel eons ago. The hatred borne by the rest of the world that passed the motion to create an observer status state which ultimately says, they exist as a political entity even without recognizing Israel's right to exist, and their having just completed a volley of over 1500 rockets fired into the State of Israel in the past month without any actual condemnation is again all according to the ancient prophecies. Disguise it any way your want, call it anti-Zionism, disagreement with Israeli politics, a push for equality of all people in the area, but the reality is and always has been anti-Jewish. Let the events of today unfold as they were meant to be and let God do what He has always intended to do. But as a people, let us for once be unified in a single voice and say to the rest of the world, "Bring It On!"

Avrom Aryeh-Zuk Kahana