Israel’s defense minister has urged Jews to leave France and move to the Jewish state as the Israeli government continued to lash out at the international community in the wake of a UN resolution criticizing its settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Four days after the US allowed the UN Security Council to censure Israeli settlement building, Israel’s government is on a heated rhetorical campaign against the 14 countries that voted against it. The US is accused of allowing this vote to pass by refusing to use their veto power to stop it.
Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, urged French Jews to migrate to Israel, saying it was “the only answer that should be given to this plot”.
Mr Netanyahu irked the French government by making a similar suggestion after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January 2015, implying that France was unable to protect its roughly 450,000 Jews from jihadist attacks.
Israel’s goal is to discourage any new international action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict until the new U.S. President takes office on January 20.
The president-elect criticized the White House for not using America’s veto power to stop the UN from censuring Israel and has signaled that he intends to robustly support Mr Netanyahu, and Israel. Mr. Trump was not alone in criticizing the US decision to allow UN resolution, a host of other leaders at home and abroad were critical as well.
Israel has accused Mr. Obama of engineering the UN resolution as a parting shot against Israel and offered to supply the incoming Presidential administration with “ironclad” evidence of behind-the-scenes US maneuvering.
Many evangelical Christians are troubled by the lack of support for Israel from the current White House administration, seeing in National Israel a vanguard of biblical prophecy. Indeed, America has long enjoyed a friendly relationship with National Israel, considering them an island of calm in a sea of Middle East turmoil. However, in spite of that positive history, and current antipathy, it should be remembered that the real focus of biblical prophecy, is not National Israel, but Spiritual Israel.
Paul speaks of the future restoration of the whole creation (Rom. 8:19-23) in connection with the “redemption of our body.” In Galatians 4:26 his brief reference to the heavenly Jerusalem is to explain the difference between literal Israel of the flesh and spiritual Israel of faith. He firmly believes that the Old testament prophecies to Israel apply to the Christian church, for he reiterates the statement that true Israel, to whom belong the covenants and the promises, is not the nation descended literally from Abraham, but the seed of Abraham by faith who are the Christians, both Jewish and Gentile alike (Romans 9:6-8 ; Rom. 2:28,29; Galatians 4:28-30).
So Abraham is plainly the father of Spiritual Israel--those who individually choose to be governed by God. This was the larger, “long-range vision” that clarifies many an otherwise baffling prediction concerning Israel and its restoration.
Such an understanding is absolutely fundamental to students of Bible Prophecy. Those of us who receive the promises of God with the faith of Jesus must see ourselves as God sees us. We are part of the last-day segment of God’s chosen line of witnesses spanning the entire Christian era. We must not surrender the dream.
“Fear not little flock. It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).