WHO OWNS THE LAND OF ISRAEL?

THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

The area known as the Middle East occupies a considerable portion of the news. The State of Israel is about ¼ the size of Arkansas, and most of the Middle East news is centered on Israel. This small piece of land is very important.

Many religious groups are represented in Israel, but three predominate: Jewish, Islamic and Christian. Jewish religious groups include Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and whatever is left that is not considered Christian or Islamic. Likewise, groups categorized as Islamic are either truly Islamic or are part of a faith related to Islam. Anyone who is not Jewish or Islamic is called Christian. This holds regardless of what a person actually believes regarding the Bible, Jesus, Mohammed, or Rabbi Akiva; the person will be religiously placed into one of three categories.

Socially, a person is either Jewish, Arabic, Christian, a foreigner, or a mixture. Few in the Middle East acknowledge the existence of a Jewish Christian or a Christian Jew.

Since this small area known as Israel is between the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, there is good reason why a power would desire to have and to hold this land. During the times of open borders and trading, there is no other spot on the planet that is a better business location! The very term Mediterranean means middle of the world! Israel is located at the best trade route of the Mediterranean.

Thus, the question comes up: who truly has the right to this Land between the continents? The Palestinians claim to have the first rights to the land, since it was their land long before Israel came. When Israel was still in Egypt, the Palestinians, known in the Jewish Scriptures as the Philistines, were living among other races collectively called Canaanites in the Jewish Scriptures. The word canaan means merchant, and these races were dealers in merchandise of all sorts.

Later, when Israel, consisting of the descendants of Jacob (whose name was later changed to Israel) came out of Egypt, Israel came as a warring people with orders from Yehovah to annihilate the Canaanites: men, women, children, babies and farm animals. Yehovah commanded them to move into the homes of the Canaanites as they annihilated them little by little. They were to show no mercy, and they were not to marry among the Canaanites. Israel came, but the Israelis did not do a thorough job. Many Canaanites survived. While the Palestinians were not part of the groups the Israelis were commanded to annihilate, they were very troublesome to the Israelis. Yehovah recognized the lands of the Palestinians, and viewed them as distinct from the Land of Israel. He spoke of a time coming, however, when Israel would also have the lands of the Palestinians.

Much later in Israel’s history, Israel was taken captive. The northern section of Israel was taken over by the Assyrians who intermarried with them. Their children were known as the Samaritans, since northern Israel had its capital in Samaria. This was a way to keep the Israelis from rebelling against the Assyrians. Then southern Israel was overtaken by Babylon, which also took over the Assyrian empire, bringing the twelve tribes of Israel back together again. The Israelis were entirely removed off the Land and transferred to Babylon. Others moved into the void. After a length of time, a few Israelis came back and built up the area. Israel always remained under some other power, however. After the Roman Empire came into being, the Maccabees invited Rome to make Israel part of its domain. The Israelis later tried to get rid of the foreign powers (because Rome became so decadent), and Rome finally became tired of the whole thing the insurrections. Once again, the Jews were forced to leave the area. Laws were enacted to keep them from settling in this territory.

Meanwhile, the various races of the Middle East, like the Ishmaelites who come from Abraham’s other son, the Moabites and the Ammonites who come from Abraham’s nephew, Lot, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Turks, and many others including the Palestinians settled at various times in the increasingly unproductive land known today as Israel. The populations of these various groups in this land were not large; it was not the best place to live. It still was a very good place to conduct business!

Throughout the history of Europe and the Middle East, attempts were made to obtain this territory, and attempts were made to do something with this strange People, the Jews. In Europe, ‘Christians’ could not hold some professions (like money-lending), since the Catholic Church did not allow them, so the Jews filled in the gaps. The profession of banking was one of these, since one had to lend with usury—what we call interest—to do banking. This was considered immoral by the Church since the Bible prohibited the Jews to lend to a poor brother charging an interest charge. (Catholic leaders believed that they replaced Israel.) The command also said that the Jews had to lend to a poor brother without interest if the brother had a true need, and if the other could lend. Since Jews were not part of the Catholic Church, they could lend money with interest. Thus, the Jewish People did this service of money-lending. They also found that kings soon owed them considerable sums! Some kings formed a plan for debt cancellation: kill the Jews! This is basically the history of Europe. The Jews were an outcast People with few times of peace. The Crusades included the mass murdering of Jews by the European ‘Christians.’ The most recent Crusade was led by Hitler in Germany The call to purify the Aryan race came forth with the statement on the belts of SS men, “God is with us!” The Jews were again the targets.

A movement to set up a homeland in Israel finally had a strong thrust behind it. Groups of Jewish settlers began moving into the Land in question, purchasing at first, then later taking over territory when forced to fight to survive while occupying the territory.

If the whole story were that written above, one could quite easily come to the conclusion that the Jews, though mistreated, were also conquerors, mistreating the residents of the Land (especially the Palestinians), who were driven out or fled when the Jews came into the Land. This tends to be the majority view of what took place! Who truly owns the Land?

In any case under consideration, where one party feels that it has been deprived of rights, there must be a standard upon which to base the case. The idea of right and wrong always assumes that there is a right side and a wrong side to an issue, even though there may be a some right in the wrong side, and some wrong in the right side of many issues. That is what makes justice tough. All questions pertaining to ownership of that land boil down to one: “Which God is the right God?” All Law assumes an absolute. If two people agree on any issue, then one appears to violate that agreement, either a war between the two will decide, or there will be some appeal by both to a higher authority. That authority will be viewed as absolute to the two parties if they agree to follow the decision of that authority. If one of the two parties refuses to accept the ruling after the authority rules in the case, however, what is the next step? That party might then choose to follow what it sees as a higher absolute authority, and there would probably be a war. What is the highest absolute authority? The word absolute indicates highest. This necessarily introduces the issue of a god! There is no appeal higher than a god.

The issue of the ownership of the Middle East is the issue of absolute authority. The Moslems claim that God (Allah) is God, and his attributes are revealed by the Koran. They also claim that Jehovah is Allah. Followers of Orthodox Judaism claim that Adonai is God, and that his attributes are revealed in the Tenach (the Jewish Scriptures) and in the Oral traditions passed down from Moses’ time. Fundamentalist Christians claim that Jesus is God and that Jehovah is God, and that Jesus and Jehovah are one God, and his attributes are revealed in the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament. What authority, then, will be used to decide land wars? If all three believed in the same god and the same holy book, there would be little problem; the issue could be decided by carefully considering and following the teachings of that god. All three groups claim a different set of standards for deciding such issues, however. Thus, what actually is being decided in the Middle East is, “Whose god is the stronger?”

If the issue could be settled on the basis of which holy book is the oldest one, the Chinese claim to have a holy book that greatly predates Jewish Scriptures. The Jewish Scriptures predate the Jewish writings of the New Testament. New Testament writings greatly predate the Koran. The antiquity of texts has never solved such a problem. The followers of Islam claim that the Taura, the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) was originally right, but the Jews rewrote it so that it now favours the Jews. There are many who claim to be Christians who feel that the ‘Old Testament’ was originally the right way, but Jesus came to bring in a new and a better way, thus effectively undermining the ‘Old Testament’ and its usefulness. Upon which ‘absolute’ can one decide?

Only several things can be true:

1. All three could be wrong. The Jewish Scriptures could be false, the Koran could be false, and the New Testament could be false—either in part or in whole. In this case, justice in this situation would lie either in some other religion or in no religion. It cannot lie in these three religions at the same time, or in two of these three religions at the same time, because the rulings are directly opposite at times! Unless the gods of several of these religions are both true gods, and are at war, the only other possibility would be that the one god has a problem making up his mind. If all three religions are wrong, all this fighting will just go on and on until either the real god steps in, or until one side completely wins by the destruction of the other.

2. One of the three descriptions of god is right. If this is the case, each description of god eliminates the other two, taken in the most orthodox sense. Each description of god also eliminates all the other gods in the world since all three, the Moslem, the Christian, and the Orthodox Jewish faiths state that there is only one god!

3. If only one of the three descriptions is right, this god must be the true God, and the other gods must be false and invented. If a god is false, any ‘absolute justice’ based upon this god is not absolute, but is invented by the god’s makers. Justice becomes a matter of opinion!

So, who owns the land? Whichever god is the True and Living God solely can determine this matter!

The Koran does not give events in the life of the patriarchs from beginning to end, but rather gives pieces of the events with some editorials. In other words, the Koran assumes the Jewish Scriptures! The Koran in effect declares that the Jewish Scriptures are true, though modern Moslems claim that changes have been made (without proof). Only the Jewish Scriptures give the events of the patriarchs from beginning to end, explaining how things came about in their lives and in their relationships. The Koran is more of an editorial than an account. Thus, the Koran is dependant on the Jewish Scriptures.

The ‘New Testament,’ like the ‘Old Testament,’ was penned by Jews. The ‘New Testament’ always assumes that the ‘Old Testament’ (which it simply calls the Scriptures or the Word of God) is absolutely true, and is truth. Thus, the ‘New Testament’ also depends on the ‘Old Testament.’

The difference is that the Koran describes the role of the Jewish People in a very different manner from the ‘Old Testament,’ whereas the ‘New Testament’ sees the role of the Jewish People as completely unchanged. (There are interpreters who like to think that the ‘New Testament’ casts the Jews out and replaces them with the ‘Church.’ They do not read the ‘New Testament’ literally, choosing to vary their interpretations according to their views). The ‘New Testament’ completely agrees with the ‘Old Testament.’ The Koran takes a view similar to the ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’—that Jesus is not God, but is a prophet of God. He is therefore akin to Mohammed who the Koran states is a prophet, but lower than Mohammed.

Many Jewish individuals see no agreement between the ‘New Testament’ and the ‘Old Testament;’ they believe that the ‘New Testament’ makes a human a god. However, the ‘Old Testament’ portrays Yehovah as appearing as a man, eating, wrestling, discussing, writing, and doing a number of other things that a man might do. There is nothing in the ‘Old Testament’ that eliminates the idea of the Eternal God taking an aspect of Himself, making this aspect into a mortal human person, and doing what Yeshua did while retaining the status of being an Eternal, Immortal God. This is outside of what Allah would ever do according to the Koran. Thus it is impossible for Allah. If a god would never do something, that makes it morally impossible for that god to do it. While the Jewish sages might say that it is morally impossible for Jehovah to do what Yeshua did, the ‘Old Testament’ Scriptures do not portray this as being the case.

All three faiths rely upon the ‘Old Testament’ Scriptures (Jewish Scriptures) to a large degree. What does that prove? If the Jewish Scriptures are wrong, all three faiths fall! The Koran falls, because there is no other record of the fractional events mentioned in the Koran, so the Koran becomes a piece-meal volume of editorials regarding events that might be fictional! The ‘New Testament’ would fall, because it assumes the absolute authority of the ‘Old Testament.’ Either the Jewish Scriptures are true, or all three religions have no basis! This does not make any or all true. The fight in the Middle East, however, is a fight within the confines of these three faiths!

Well, with this large introduction completed, what do the Jewish Scriptures say about the issue?

1. Sending Israel From Egypt to the Land of the Canaanites

Exodus 3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ²And the angel of Yehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush is not consumed. ³And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. ⁴And when Yehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. ⁵And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. ⁶Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. ⁷And Yehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; ⁸And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Yehovah chose to set Israel where the Canaanites were located from the start, completely uprooting the Canaanites. This was intentional, and would later be accompanied by intentional genocide. Though Yehovah spoke of the land as the land of “the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,” He intended it to become the Land of Israel! (Justice must always be from the standpoint of God, who alone is absolute. So if Yehovah is God, He had and has the right to do this! If He is not God, then of course this was a murderous plot trumped up by the leadership of Israel.)

2. A Slow Driving Out of the Canaanites in order to Keep the Land from Becoming Desolate

Exodus 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of Yehovah thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. ²⁰Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. ²¹Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. ²²But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. ²³For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. ²⁴Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. ²⁵And ye shall serve Yehovah your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. ²⁶There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. ²⁷I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. ²⁸And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. ²⁹I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. ³⁰By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. ³¹And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. ³²Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. ³³They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

The use Yehovah has for the Canaanites is to keep the land from wild beasts and desolation until the Israelis can annihilate them and take over the territory. The inhabitants have a deadly disease: they are sexually perverted idolaters. This disease will spread to the Israelis unless the Israelis kill them and destroy their gods. This commanded annihilation is only true of the inhabitants of the Land in question. There is no such command for the races outside of the land. (One group among the Canaanites, knowing these orders, feigned to be foreign travelers having come from a great distance. They managed to cut a covenant with Israel. Yehovah held Israel to keep that covenant, and Israel was never allowed to destroy them.) Yehovah loves Israel and has utter hatred and contempt for the Canaanite races. This hatred of the God of Israel for those who sacrifice their children by burning them alive, who love idolatry and violence, and who practice sexual perversions of all types is a continuous theme throughout the Jewish Scriptures, Old and New Testaments. These races were hooked on these types of performances.

3. Yehovah Approves of the Slaughter of the Canaanites and Their Cities by Answered Prayer

Numbers 21:1 And [when] king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took [some] of them prisoners. ²And Israel vowed a vow unto Yehovah, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. ³And Yehovah hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

A heart-felt prayer is made to Yehovah, the God of Israel. He graciously answers that prayer. The text implies that Yehovah is fully resolved to destroy and slaughter the cities and their occupants. This theme also carries into the New Testament; there is no change between the Old and the New Testaments.

4. Yehovah Segregates Israel from All Other Races to be His Own Property, and Takes Vengeance.

Deuteronomy 7:1 When Yehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; ²And when Yehovah thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them: ³Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. ⁴For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Yehovah be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. ⁵But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶For thou art an holy people unto Yehovah thy God: Yehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. ⁷Yehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye are the fewest of all people: ⁸But because Yehovah loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath Yehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know therefore that Yehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; ¹⁰And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. ¹¹Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. ¹²Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that Yehovah thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: ¹³And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. ¹⁴Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

Yehovah segregated Israel from the other races to set His love on Israel, and to choose Israel. The Scriptures emphatically declare that this status is still the present status of this often-hated race. Many are constantly jealous of Israel’s position in the Scriptures. They feel that if Israel were annihilated, they could take Israel’s place!

The Palestinians speak of a homeland in the present location of the State of Israel. There is not enough room in this small land for the Palestinians and for the Israelis. One objective of a number of Middle Eastern groups is to push Israel into the sea, thus solving the problem of the Middle East. Israel’s population is far fewer than Israel’s neighbours, and enjoys far less support from other races and countries throughout the world. Yet, it has managed to defy all odds and has put terror in the hearts of its neighbours. The Jewish Scriptures guaranteed Israel’s survival. They have also guaranteed the annihilation of several other races. The Palestinian race will not be annihilated, But will become a slave of Israel.

Yehovah takes vengeance on His enemies, especially on those who hate Him! Anyone who hates Israel hates Israel’s God since the God of Israel guarantees the continuance and the later success of Israel over Israel’s enemies!

5. Yehovah Differentiates between the Races Outside of the Land and Those Inside Determined for Annihilation. He Protects the Trees.

Deuteronomy 20:10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. ¹¹And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, all the people [that is] found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. ¹²And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: ¹³And when Yehovah thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: ¹⁴But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which Yehovah thy God hath given thee. ¹⁵Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities [which are] very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. ¹⁶But of the cities of these people, which Yehovah thy God doth give thee [for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: ¹⁷But thou shalt utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as Yehovah thy God hath commanded thee: ¹⁸That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against Yehovah your God. ¹⁹When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s [life]) to employ [them] in the siege: ²⁰Only the trees which thou knowest that they [be] not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.

Israel was not commanded to annihilate just any group that might prove to be enemies. If Israel would go to war with a race outside of the Land in question, if the race would absolutely surrender, it would become Israel’s slave. And if the race fights, only all the males need to annihilated, and the women and the little ones left would become the property of Israel. Israel was commanded to treat them differently from the races in the Land in question. Israel must not harm the trees in the Land. Yehovah saw the fruit trees as being far more valuable and useful than the vile human inhabitants. The trees of the field are a man’s [life]! These races would (and did) teach Israel to do after all their abominations that they did unto their gods! Yehovah is a jealous God, but Israel didn’t listen.

6. The Beginnings of the Trouble Between the Hebrews and the Palestinians

Genesis 26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and Yehovah blessed him. ¹³And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: ¹⁴For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

A reader might wonder when all the trouble began. Even before Israel was born, Israel’s father Isaac was being envied by the Palestinians, and the Palestinians filled in all the wells that Abraham his father had dug. This bad relationship has continued to the present day.

7. Some Episodes with the Palestinians

Judges 10:6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yehovah, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook Yehovah, and served not him.

This episode shows how the Israelis were greatly attracted to the gods of the Palestinians. The entire book of Judges seems to be a description of the wars and the love-affairs of the Israelis with Palestinians! Samson married a Palestinian girl, and later when the trouble broke out, the Palestinians burned her and her father alive. King David later slew an overgrown Palestinian named Goliath.

8. Yehovah Gave the Land to the Seed of Abraham!

Genesis 15:18 In the same day Yehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, ²⁰And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, ²¹And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Abraham didn’t own the Land in question. The only parcel of territory he obtained was the cave and plot of Machpelah where his wife was buried. He bought this plot from the inhabitants (which Israel later would be commanded to annihilate).

The passage indicates that Yehovah has the absolute rights over the Land. If He is the creator of the earth and all living things in the earth, He has the right to say who will live and who will die. Even if men disagree with Him, counting Him unjust and unfair and hating Him and His ways, if He is the Creator and is all-powerful, what can anyone do against Him? Thus, many have tried to get at Him by getting at His Chosen Race, the race of Israel. So far, no group has succeeded. But attempts continue!

9. The Actual Border Ordered by Yehovah

Numbers 34:1 And Yehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ²Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof: ³Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward: ⁴And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin: and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadeshbarnea, and shall go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon: ⁵And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea. ⁶And [as for] the western border, ye shall even have the great sea for a border: this shall be your west border. ⁷And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor: ⁸From mount Hor ye shall point out [your border] unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad: ⁹And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazarenan: this shall be your north border. ¹⁰And ye shall point out your east border from Hazarenan to Shepham: ¹¹And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward: ¹²And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.

If one were to take a map of Israel and identify all the places mentioned above that can be identified, there is no place in the Land in question for Palestine. Jewish Scriptures teach that the Israelis will occupy all the Land.

According to the Scriptures, Yehovah threw the Israelis into captivity when Israel as a unit went into sin, adopting the gods of its neighbours and committing all sorts of sin. The Israelis were forced off the Land and were taken to Babylon (in modern Iraq). Seventy years after Southern Israel was taken to Babylon, a few returned. There were settlements in this Land during the time of the Roman Empire. Not long after this, the Jews were again forced off the Land. Others took their place, and history is filled with events around this piece of territory, mostly bloody and violent.

The question is not “Did the Jews have the right to the Land?” but rather, do they now or in the future? Who owns the Land?

The actual Landlord over this Land is Yehovah. No one has any right to the Land. Some are given the privilege of temporarily living on the Land, or else it would be left empty.

10. The Land of Israel is Exactly That; And It is the Land of Yehovah

Isaiah 14:1 For Yehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. ²And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Yehovah for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

The Land is considered Jacob’s land, Israel’s land. Yet, it is called the land of Yehovah. This text is for the future, not for the past. It has never happened. If the Scriptures are true, the Israelis will be the occupants of the land.

Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. ⁴And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith Yehovah. ⁵Behold, the days come, saith Yehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. ⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Yehovah OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. ⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Yehovah, that they shall no more say, Yehovah liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ⁸But, Yehovah liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

11. Israel Gets the Land Forever!

Jeremiah 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehovah, saying, ²Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Yehovah, all [ye of] Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Yehovah. ³Thus saith Yehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Yehovah, The temple of Yehovah, The temple of Yehovah, are these. ⁵For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; ⁶[If] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: ⁷Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

Isaiah 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. ¹⁹The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but Yehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. ²⁰Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for Yehovah shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. ²¹Thy people also [shall be] all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. ²²A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I Yehovah will hasten it in his time.

One consolation for those who are against Israel having the Land is that Israelis must all be righteous in order for this to finally occur! If Yehovah can keep His promise of giving Israel the Land, He can also keep His promise to cause all Israel to be righteous forever, all at the same time!

12. A Perfect Way to Annihilate Israel, Get Them Off the Land Forever, and Disperse Them As a Race Forever

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith Yehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³²Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yehovah: ³³But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith Yehovah, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yehovah: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Yehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. ³⁵Thus saith Yehovah, which giveth the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; Yehovah of hosts is his name: ³⁶If those ordinances depart from before me, saith Yehovah, [then] the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. ³⁷Thus saith Yehovah; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have one, saith Yehovah.

The final solution is clear! Simply stop the ordinances of the sun, moon, stars, and the division of the seas, and Israel will cease from being a nation forever! To get Yehovah to cast off Israel forever, simply measure the heavens and search out the foundations of the earth! Otherwise, Yehovah guarantees that all Israel will know Him and will have His Teaching in their hearts. This means that they will all be righteous!

13. Real Trouble for the Palestinians!

Ezekiel 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: ²²And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: ²³Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴And David my servant [shall be] king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. ²⁵And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David [shall be] their prince for ever. ²⁶Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. ²⁷My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸And the races shall know that I Yehovah do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

This passage spells real trouble for the Palestinians (and all the other groups that desire to oust the Israelis)! But then, they truly need not fear. For, this text states that David, as in the ancient King David, will be Israel’s prince and king forever at the time that the Israelis, their children, and their children’s children will dwell in the Land forever! So, as long as King David stays dead, the Palestinians and any other group may lay claim to the Land of Israel, in part or in whole! If King David comes back, however, if he is resurrected from the dead to reign, the Palestinians are in BIG trouble! King David already took care of their biggest child, Goliath! He will not tolerate any Palestinian enemy living on Israeli territory!

14. Conclusion

Who owns the Land of Israel? Well, to whom was it promised? Who has the right Scriptures?

Malachi 3:6 For I am Yehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

It is on the basis that He never changes that the sons of Jacob are not consumed! So, if (as some say) “Jesus came to do away with the old law,” this would change the commands of Yehovah, and would be a change in Yehovah. Since the Torah is forever (literally, LeOlam, to Hider, to the end of the Planet), and if ‘Jesus’ came to bring in a new law that is not given in the old, He came to do away with the old God Yehovah, too! This would abolish the Old Testament, and would effectively destroy the New Testament since the New Testament’s validity is grounded in the Old Testament! That solves the problem of the Middle East. Whichever god/God is the strongest will hold title to the Land. The fighting will go on and on among the peoples until one god/God wins and the others are destroyed! If Yeshua will come again to His People Israel to save them from their enemies and to rid the Land of Israel of any occupying power, if Yeshua will place Israel there as the only People to hold the land, Yehovah of Hosts who is Messiah Yeshua and the God of Israel owns the Land. The Palestinians won’t. Period.