Weekly Update: Jordan and “Palestine”
Alliances are changing rapidly in the Middle East. A key country is Jordan: Israel’s eastern neighbor, with which it entered a Peace Treaty in 1994, but has always had a troubled relationship.
The foundations of the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan were laid in 1921, when Winston Churchill made the decision to sever the territory of the Mandate for Palestine into two parts. The territory east of the Jordan River – “Transjordan” – was intended for the Arab Palestinian population. The territory west of the river remained for the establishment of the homeland for the Jewish people, as required by the Mandate for Palestine. Thus was born the “Palestinian” problem.
The modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was established in 1946 and is still ruled by the Hashemites. Most Jordanians are Palestinians, most of them refugees. Jordan controls the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is thereofore inevitable that Jordan has to be part of any solution of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Jordan is struggling financially, economically and politically. A potentially very significant development is that Jordan’s King Abdullah II recently announced an agreement with Egypt and Iraq to cooperate on transporting Iraqi oil through pipelines from Iraq to Jordan to Egypt, from where it will be exported to Europe via the Mediterranean. Dr. Edy Cohen argues that this brings Jordan within the sphere of influence of Iran.
It is thus no surprise that the new Israeli government is ramping up efforts to cooperate with Jordan. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met last week with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi at the King Hussein Bridge, where they announced new agreements on water and trade. It came as news leaked that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met secretly with Abdullah in Amman the week beforehand.
All of this against the backdrop of God’s promises to restore the Jewish people and settle them in the “mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 36-37) – ie. Judea and Samaria, which has become known as the “West Bank”. We are today seeing prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes. We don’t know exactly how this will play out, but we can pray that God’s will be done, and that all in the land – Jew and Gentile – will be blessed and live in peace.
Please note:
The Israel & Christians Today Weekly Update will be on vacation for the next 4 weeks.
US, Israel appear moving to bolster Jordan amid concerns over economic, social stability
Sean Savage at JNS reports: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and King Abdullah reportedly met in secret last week in Amman, prior to the Jordanian monarch’s scheduled visit the White House on July 19. The United State and Israel appear to be moving to bolster relations with Jordan as part of an effort to shore up Jordan’s King Abdullah amid concerns over his country’s stability.
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Jordan Is Now an Ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Dr. Edy Cohen writes at BESA: Jordan is suffering from severe financial hardship due to COVID-19, corruption, mismanagement, and a lack of natural resources, including water. King Abdullah believes opening the door to the Shiite regime in Iran will rescue his country from these crises. But this is likely to prove a double-edged sword. It will not take long for Jordan to sink into darkness just as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen did. As for Israel, it must now fear an eastern front under radical Shiite control that sends drones or even digs tunnels into Israeli territory.
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Are Israel and Jordan ready to turn over a new leaf?
Israel Kasnett writes at JNS.org: Jordan’s King Abdullah II has often described his country as being wedged between a “rock and a hard place,” referring to war-torn Iraq and the Israeli-controlled areas west of the Jordan River. And that may certainly have been true for many years, but now that the United States is withdrawing its troops from Iraq and Israel has a new government, Jordan finds itself facing changed realities along its borders.
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Iran’s increasing influence in the Palestinian territories
According to Dr. Kobi Michael, Israel faces a very complex situation in Gaza and the West Bank. “The internal conflict within the Palestinian territories is part of a bitter and bloody struggle in the region since the Arab Spring. What we see in the Palestinian territories – both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – is a reflection of this wider political struggle. Hamas and Fatah are not the only actors. Hamas is influenced and supported by Iran, Turkey and Qatar. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which operates from the Gaza Strip, is a full Iranian proxy. So in the small area of the Gaza Strip (365 square kilometers) we find Hamas, PIJ, Fatah and Iran, Turkey, the UN and other players – all with competing agenda’s and interests.”
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‘Making the impossible possible’ – UAE embassy opens in Tel Aviv
World Israel News reports: The United Arab Emirates officially opened its embassy in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, nearly one year after the historic Abraham Accords normalization agreement. The first-ever Emirati ambassador to Israel, Mohamed Al Khaja, told reporters at the opening that the site will serve as “a base for our task to continue to build on our new partnership, to seek dialog, not dispute, to build a new paradigm of peace and to provide a model for a new collaborative approach to conflict resolution in the Middle East.”
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The campaign against the Jewish State is intensifying
Andrew Tucker writes: Today, the war against Israel’s sovereignty in the international institutions is intensifying. Allegations that Israel is infringing international law are being used to prohibit Jews from living in the Old city of Jerusalem and the West Bank (ie. Judea and Samaria), where the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) claims full sovereignty. The attack on Israel’s sovereignty is part of a well-orchestrated and funded campaign in several UN-related institutions, where Arab and Islamic nations are able to mobilize other states to support their demands.
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Palestine | The Signs of the Times with Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer
The name ‘Palestine’ does not appear in the Bible. In the Bible, the Promised Land is called ‘Canaan’ or ‘Israel’. The name ‘Palestine’ was given to this area by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the year AD 135. He hated the Jews so much that he decided to no longer call this Roman Province ‘Israel’ but ‘Palestine’ – deliberately named after Israel’s archenemies: the Philistines. He also renamed Jerusalem ‘Aelia Capitolina’.
The Context | New video series with Johannes Gerloff #02
As Christians we are often used to take statements out of context as God’s personal voice providing much needed direction in our lives. This might be okay, because the Holy Spirit indeed speaks in unusual ways. However, if we wish to understand Paul’s argument in Romans 9-11, we have to understand his train of thought.
Scripture for the week: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
