Turkey is forming and breaking alliances—and fulfilling Bible prophecy.
FROM THE MARCH 2018 TRUMPET PRINT EDITION
Turkey may have lost its Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, but it remains a formidable power in the Middle East and Europe.
The Turkish landmass is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and eight countries in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. The Bible describes Turkey as standing “in the crossway” (Obadiah 14). It is a crucial land bridge: Whoever controls it will always wield strategic and geopolitical influence.
Turkey’s economy is stronger than any Middle Eastern nation. Its military is the most powerful in the region.
It makes sense for global powers and regional neighbors to befriend the Turks. But Turkey likes making friends and building alliances almost as much as it likes offending friends and alienating allies.
American leaders who believe the U.S. should trust Turkey should be aware that Bible prophecy shows this nation to be a dubious ally and a betrayer of friends. But even if they do not believe prophecy, Turkey’s recent history reveals this truth. Consider the evidence.
Israel and Jerusalem
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, “father of the Turks,” founded modern Turkey in 1923. He established the nation as a secular state oriented toward the West and Western principles of governance, even though 99.8 percent of the Turkish population is Muslim.
In 1949, Turkey became the first predominantly Muslim country to recognize the State of Israel. In 1996, it became the first predominantly Muslim nation to sign a free-trade agreement with Israel.
This direction changed with the rise of Turkey’s current leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an authoritarian who brazenly espouses Islamist ideology and champions the Palestinian cause.
Over the years of Erdoğan’s reign, from 2003 as prime minister, and from 2014 as president, Turkey’s relationship with Israel has vacillated between friend and foe. Most notably, in 2010, after Israel imposed a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians live, Turkey tried to break that blockade by sending an aid flotilla to Gaza. Israeli commandos challenged the Turks at sea, killing nine of them. Turkey cut diplomatic ties with Israel for six years. In June 2016, the two nations signed a reconciliation agreement to restore diplomatic ties.
When the U.S. announced this past December that it recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Erdoğan quickly responded that Israeli bloodshed has “made Jerusalem a dungeon for Muslims and members of other religions …. With their decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the United States has become a partner in this bloodshed.” Erdoğan said Jerusalem “is the red line for Muslims” and threatened to go as far as cutting diplomatic ties with Israel—again. He said Israel was a “terrorist state” and that “Palestine has been under occupation since 1947.”
This on-again-off-again relationship is hanging by a thin thread.
Russia and Iran
Now consider Turkey’s relationship with its regional neighbors, Iran and Russia.
The civil war in Syria, now in its seventh year, has dramatically reduced the influence of America among Syrians and boosted the influence of Turkey, Russia and Iran.
During a September conference in Kazakhstan, these three nations allied and agreed to guarantee a ceasefire agreement which established four de-escalation zones in Syria.
Since then, however, this Turk-Russo-Iranian alliance appears to be breaking apart.
“[T]he ‘alliance’ among these three countries was built on a mismatch of interests,” Geopolitical Futures’ Jacob Shapiro wrote on January 11. “It’s a perfect example of the old adage that two’s company, three’s a crowd. … Turkey’s ideal political solution sees [Syrian President Bashar] Assad removed and the country stitched back together under Sunni aegis. Iran’s ideal political solution sees Assad restored but dependent on Iran and its proxies for survival. Russia’s ideal political solution is any that makes it appear strong and keeps Assad as a somewhat independent actor, neither dependent on Tehran nor fearful of Ankara’s next move. Something’s got to give.”
The Assad regime unnerved the Turks when it allegedly seized at least 16 villages in Idlib, close to the Turkish border. Turkey already hosts about 3 million Syrian refugees, and with 60,000 residents from Idlib displaced so far, the Turks are understandably concerned about the recent escalation of violence.
On January 9, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of Iran and Russia—Assad’s chief supporters—to express anger not only at Russia’s and Iran’s failure to de-escalate the violence in those zones, but also at their probable complicity in the violence.
Three days earlier, alleged Turkish-backed rebels from Idlib attacked Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base in western Syria with a swarm of 13 drones. Russia blamed the United States for coordinating the attacks. But that was after it had accused Turkey of helping the attackers.
According to Geopolitical Futures, these developments essentially amounted to Turkey breaking with Iran and Russia.
America and NATO
The Syrian civil war has hurt Turkey’s relationship with the West, especially with America. But relations have not always been this bad.
In 1951, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and became an important ally of the West in fighting communism and terrorism.
On December 29, Turkey signed a deal to purchase Russia’s advanced S-400 antimissile system, which can fire multiple surface-to-air interceptor missiles with a range of up to 450 miles. Understandably, the purchase upset nato members. The National Interestcalled it a “game changer in the Middle East.”
The United States said it will not allow Turkey to integrate the Russian system into nato’s defense architecture because of obvious cybersecurity concerns. According to RT, Erdoğan responded that Turkey will not rely on nato for protection, dismissing criticisms from other nato nations by saying, “We take care of ourselves.”
Turkey has already paid a 45 percent down payment for the $2.5 billion deal. A Russian credit line will finance the remainder. “We will not borrow in dollars in this loan,” Erdoğan told reporters. “[W]e will borrow in [Russian] rubles.”
On January 14, the United States announced plans to support a 30,000-strong “border force” of Kurdish fighters in Syria. President Erdoğan said, “A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our borders. What can that terror army target but Turkey?” He then threatened: “Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born.”
So this is yet another Turkish alliance that’s in trouble.
Germany and Europe
Turkey’s relationship with Germany and Europe has also been in flux. Ever since 1987, Turkey has wanted to join the European Union. It has not succeeded, and Bible prophecy indicates that it will not succeed but that it will form a temporary alliance.
Germany’s ties with Turkey in recent months have been severely strained by Erdoğan’s turn toward authoritarianism and a spat between him and European leaders, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Despite these strained relations, the two countries are still interdependent. There are more Turks in Germany than any other immigrant group, and Germany is Turkey’s most important trading partner. Jan Techau, a director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said, “There is no other economic option for Erdoğan, so he really needs Europe.”
During a meeting with Erdoğan in January, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “We should … see if we cannot rethink this relationship, not in the framework of the [EU] integration process, but perhaps a cooperation, a partnership.” He added that Europe’s goal should be to keep Turkey “anchored” in Europe and ensure that its “future will be built looking toward Europe and with Europe.”
Turkey’s Future
Bible prophecy indicates that, indeed, there might be no other economic option for Erdoğan and Turkey. It also indicates that there might be no other political option for Erdoğan and Turkey—after whatever might remain from Turkey’s alliances with the United States, Russia and Iran.
We can expect Turkey to betray some of its alliances and align itself more with its western neighbors in Europe.
The Trumpet’s November 2011 article “East, West or Neither?” shows that the Turks descended from Esau, the grandson of the biblical patriarch Abraham. Esau was the grandfather of Teman, from whom the Turks derived the name of their Ottoman Empire.
The biblical book of Obadiah describes the Turkey of our time as being “as one of them,” allied with Germany, which leads a European power. In Psalm 83, the Bible describes an alliance of nations which “have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against” the United States, Britain and the Jewish nation of Israel, primarily. This Psalm 83 alliance says, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” In this prophecy (and in all other Bible prophecies), “Israel” doesn’t primarily refer to the Jews in the Middle East; it refers primarily to the Anglo-American nations. Request your free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy to understand more about these names and these prophecies.
The nation of Turkey is located in such a strategic region that it has to balance and counterbalance its relations with its neighbors and allies. The recent history of its relationships with friend and foe alike shows how these prophecies are nearing complete fulfillment.
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In the wrong hands, even just one lost nuclear weapon could be disastrous.
FROM THE MARCH 2018 TRUMPET PRINT EDITION
On Dec. 5, 1965, Lt. Douglas M. Webster climbed into his aircraft as he prepared to take part in a round of United States Navy training exercises. The plane was an A-4E Skyhawk, on board the uss Ticonderoga aircraft carrier. The Ticonderoga was en route from duty along the Vietnamese coast to a port call in Japan. When the ship was 70 miles east of Okinawa, Webster’s Skyhawk accidentally rolled off the deck and plunged into the Pacific.
One other important detail: Webster’s jet was carrying a one-megaton B-43 thermonuclear bomb, with a yield 70 times larger than the weapon detonated on Hiroshima, Japan, 20 years earlier.
Crews from the Ticonderoga and its escort ships spent hours searching. But Webster, his plane and the nuclear weapon were never found. The U.S. government kept the incident confidential until 1989.
Empty Quivers and Broken Arrows
This event was neither the first nor the last time that American forces suffered “Empty Quiver” or “Broken Arrow” incidents—military code words describing the accidental firing, seizure, theft or loss of nuclear weapons.
“There always is the possibility of an accident,” said David G. Jackson, former public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The United States has acknowledged 32 such accidents, the first in 1950 and the latest in 1980. “A couple of weapons were accidentally dropped from aircraft,” Jackson said. “There have been midair collisions, there have been planes destroyed in terrible weather; the planes just came apart, and the bombs went on down. Some weapons that were jettisoned at sea, mostly in deep water, so many years ago that, by now, who knows what’s down there?”
In the case of at least seven weapons, U.S. officials acknowledged that they never recovered the strays:
1956 A B-47 flying from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida toward a base in Morocco vanishes. It was carrying two nuclear weapon cores and is believed to have crashed somewhere around the Morocco-Algeria border. Despite extensive search efforts, no debris or crash site is ever found—at least not by U.S. authorities.
1961 A B-52 armed with two 24-megaton nuclear weapons crashes near an air base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the bombs falls somewhere in the swampy terrain and is never recovered.
1965 The Ticonderoga loses Lieutenant Webster, his Skyhawk and its one-megaton B-43 munition.
1968 The uss Scorpion submarine vanishes near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic along with its 99 crewmen and two 11-kiloton Mark 45 antisubmarine nuclear torpedoes. The Navy searches for the vessel for nine days and finds no sign of it. A later mission locates the wreckage and verifies that the torpedo room remains intact, but it is unable to retrieve the nuclear weapons.
The U.S. military does not acknowledge the occurrence of any Broken Arrows or Empty Quivers since 1980. This doesn’t mean no nuclear weapons incidents have occurred since then, but only that the government keeps more recent incidents classified, mainly for security reasons.
And the United States is not the only nation to occasionally lose track of a nuclear weapon.
Back in the USSR
In 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nation to successfully test an atomic device. Within a few years, the Soviet military had deployed an abundance of deliverable nuclear bombs. With this proliferation came numerous Soviet Broken Arrows and Empty Quivers.
One of the most notable Soviet incidents occurred in October 1986, after the seal failed on a missile hatch cover of a Soviet Yankee i-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. The failure led to a fire, and the submarine sank—along with an estimated 34 nuclear weapons.
At the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, its vast arsenal included more than 27,000 nuclear weapons and enough highly enriched uranium and plutonium to manufacture 54,000 more. After the chaotic downfall, the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are believed to have transferred all their Soviet nuclear arms to Russia. But security in these former Soviet states was, and in some cases still is, notoriously insufficient. And these nations still possess reserves of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.
There have been no authenticated reports of Soviet nuclear weapons being stolen or lost during the post-ussrtransfer, but abundant evidence indicates that there is a vibrant black market for nuclear materials. From 1993 to 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) reported 2,880 confirmed incidents of nuclear trafficking, theft, smuggling, loss and other unauthorized activities, 30 of which involved highly enriched uranium, which is the primary component of nuclear weapons. “Some of these incidents involved attempts to sell or traffic these materials across international borders,” the iaea said.
The report noted that the iaea knows only about failed smuggling attempts, adding, “The number of successful transactions is not known ….”
A True Threat?
Experts believe that corrosion and contamination has rendered most of the weapons that fell into the oceans unable to produce nuclear explosions. They say most of those on the seafloor—such as the one on Webster’s Skyhawk—probably pose little danger beyond radiation harm to the local marine environment. Experts also say security safeguards are built onto many such weapons to prevent unauthorized personnel from being able to detonate them. There is also the fact that tritium gas in nuclear weapons normally needs to be replenished periodically to keep them detonable. These factors combine to mean that most of the world’s stray nuclear materials and nuclear weapons may not present a grave threat.
But all it would take is one.
One nuclear weapon falling into the hands of a team determined to either repair or reverse-engineer it could pose a serious threat. And that brings us to Iran.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his free booklet Daniel Unlocks Revelation: “Today, the regime started by the Iranian Revolution is trying to take over the whole Arab world! … It’s about to achieve nuclear status, and other nations are too weak to stop it! Iran will keep pushing the West until it gets a fight.”
In his article titled “America’s Deadly Nuclear Deal With Iran,” Mr. Flurry wrote: “Iran is pushing and pushing its foreign policy. It is about to push so hard and so aggressively that it will launch a massive war! But it won’t be with the United States, which is now too weak to even fight such a war. … [Y]ou see Iran pushing aggressively at America and also very forcefully against Europe; … you see the very real threat of war; you see the very imminent threat of nuclear bombs eliminating millions of people” (Trumpet, October 2016).
Mr. Flurry’s statements are based on specific Bible prophecies that describe a coming nuclear World War iii that Iran’s pushing against Europe will soon trigger.
Daniel 11:40 says, “at the time of the end” a power called “the king of the south” will “push” at another power bloc called “the king of the north.”
Today, analysts around the world regularly label the Islamic Republic of Iran as the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Underwriting such brutal behavior is among the most confrontational or “pushy” policies a country could implement, and helps to pinpoint the “king of the south” as radical Islam led by Iran. Verses 42-43 indicate that, when the third world war breaks out, this Middle Eastern power will have some degree of partnership with Libya, Egypt and Ethiopia. Also pertinent is that most of the radical Islamists in these and other regions that Iran sways lie mostly to the south of Israel. (For detailed proof that the “king of the south” is modern Iran, request Mr. Flurry’s free booklet The King of the South.)
The “king of the north” in this passage refers to a united European power that will be led by Germany and guided by the Vatican. An examination of Revelation 17 makes this clear and delivers key details about this mighty church-state combine, which is already materializing today. Daniel 8:23-24 say this “king” will “destroy wonderfully.” (For thorough proof that the king of the north will be a German-led European power, request our free book The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.)
This all makes clear that when radical Islam, as led by Iran, pushes against the united European power that is influenced by the Vatican, that push will be the spark that ignites nuclear World War iii.
Thanks in large part to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (jcpoa) nuclear deal that the Obama administration implemented with Iran on Jan. 16, 2016, the Iranians will soon be able to develop nuclear weapons without outside assistance. There is also ample evidence that assistance from North Korea could be hastening Iran’s race toward that milestone.
But what if Tehran, or terrorists from one of the many groups that Iran supports, were to acquire one of the Broken Arrow or Empty Quiver weapons lost by the U.S. or Russia? This would boost the capacity of the king of the south to intensify its push against Western powers. This would be the case even if the nuclear materials they obtained were only used to make a dirty bomb: a weapon combining conventional explosives with radioactive materials in order to contaminate the area around the conventional explosion with radioactive material. Such a detonation in a city like Jerusalem would be a history-altering event.
Whether or not the world’s stray nuclear materials end up contributing to the spark that ignites that final world war, Bible prophecy makes clear that it will be an unprecedentedly destructive conflict. In Matthew 24:21-22, Jesus Christ is recorded as saying: “For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive …” (New Living Translation).
This could only be describing a global nuclear war with enough detonations to cause nuclear winter.
Cause for Hope
Yet as we see that utterly devastating and dark time of war approach, there is cause for profound hope! Continuing that passage in Matthew 24:22, just after Christ says that nuclear war at the end of this age will be so devastating that it could end all human life, He then adds a crucial detail: “But it will be shortened” (nlt).
Nuclear World War iii will be interrupted!
Before man detonates enough weapons to entirely obliterate himself, Jesus Christ will cut the war short. Following just after that season of unprecedented death, He will usher in an age of unprecedented peace. Regarding this future time of worldwide tranquility and prosperity, Isaiah 2:4 says: “[N]ation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” War, nuclear and otherwise, will then be a relic of a bygone era.
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READ MOREHow to Avoid (or Recover From) Diabetes
Keep this worldwide epidemic from affecting your life.
FROM THE MARCH 2018 TRUMPET PRINT EDITION
Diabetes is now the eighth-biggest killer in the world, accounting for 1.5 million deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization (who). New cases of diabetes have nearly quadrupled worldwide since 1980, rising to a staggering 422 million people annually by 2016.
Once considered a disease of affluence, diabetes has now spread to every corner of the globe, with two thirds of cases occurring in low-to-middle-income countries. And the price tag, at a crushing $827 billion annual cost, has the who admitting in its first Global Diabetes Report that the disease could threaten the economies of all nations.
The truth is, though, that we have tremendous power over this disease—through the way we live.
What Is Diabetes?
There are three main forms of the disease. Type 1, with no known cure, is where the pancreas stops producing the hormone insulin and as a result, sugar builds up in the blood instead of being used as energy. Type 2 results from the body’s ineffective use of insulin and comprises the majority of people with diabetes around the world. The third, gestational diabetes, is a temporary condition in women with high blood glucose (sugar) levels during pregnancy.
The mechanisms of the disease are intricate. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California–San Francisco, the way your body stores fat is a carefully regulated process controlled primarily by the hormone leptin. If we gain excess weight, the additional body fat produces extra leptin that sends satiation signals to the brain, causing us to stop feeling hungry.
But as we consume a diet heavy in sugar and processed foods, our body no longer hears the messages telling it to stop eating and burn fat. This continued onslaught produces abnormally high blood sugar levels with repeated surges in insulin, in turn causing cells to become insulin resistant. In short, there is a metabolic miscommunication in the body when leptin and insulin levels are continually disrupted, eventually leading to Type 2 diabetes.
Grave Health Implications
Those with Type 2 diabetes are two to four times more likely to get cardiovascular disease, and 80 percent of these will die prematurely by an estimated 12 to 14 years. Other repercussions include nerve damage, infections leading to amputations, blindness, kidney failure and increased medical costs two to five times higher than for the average person (International Journal of Health Sciences).
The steady rise in diabetes is to a large degree a manifestation of our flawed, modern society. Fueled by rapid urbanization, unhealthy foods and increasingly sedentary lifestyles, the march of diabetes has closely paralleled that of obesity; almost 90 percent of people with Type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese (U.S. National Library of Medicine). Such is the interdependence between each other that the term “diabesity” has been coined.
Still, science fiddles while Rome burns, seeking the unlikely prospect of a cure via the pharmaceutical pipeline or genetic cause. In fact, a reversal of trends may lie in the simple notion of a lifestyle change.
Effective Diabetes Lifestyle Tips
Studies show that exercise may be one of the most powerful ways of getting diabetes under control. It increases the number of insulin receptors in muscle and the sensitivity of the body to insulin, which releases the pancreas of the burden of constant insulin production. Exercise also results in the release of appetite-suppressing hormones and neurotransmitters that help to forestall overeating.
Nutritionally, if you have or are in danger of getting diabetes, you should eliminate all refined grains, sugars and processed foods, especially those made with fructose and high fructose corn syrup.
Michael Pollan, authorof The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, advocates building your day around real foods—fruits and vegetables supported by lean protein and a smaller consumption of whole-grain carbohydrates.
This approach also stays clear of chemicals and genetically modified organisms, focusing on organic and sustainable food sources.
What Can Be Done?
Scientists have proved that even small amounts of weight loss (as little as 10 pounds) can keep your blood sugar levels within a healthy range and reduce the risk of diabetic complications. But further, you can actually reverse diabetes or come off medications altogether, according to Ann Albright, Ph.D., director of diabetes translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In one study, people with Type 2 diabetes exercised about three hours a week and limited their calories to between 1,200 and 1,800 a day. Within a year, about 10 percent improved to the point that their blood sugar levels were no longer in the diabetes range, and 15 to 20 percent were able to stop taking their diabetes medications altogether (WebMD.com).
All this information adds up to great news: You don’t have to be part of the diabetes epidemic. But remember, particularly if you are diabetic or prediabetic, your lifestyle will make or break you. Be mindful about your habits from day to day. Stick to whole, unprocessed foods and get your body moving to avoid becoming a statistic.
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READ MOREAbsentee Fathers Are Destroying the United States
The most damaging conspiracy today is the one against fatherhood.
Family breakdown has brought widespread fatherlessness to the United States. According to the latest figures from the Census Bureau, over 27 percent of children in the U.S. lived without a father in their home in 2017.
This percentage has nearly tripled since 1960. It means that more than 20 million children now live in a fatherless household.
The epidemic of fatherlessness is worse in many major cities. In places like Baltimore, the statistics indicate that over 70 percent of families are fatherless. The National Center for Fathering reports: “If it were classified as a disease, fatherlessness would be an epidemic worthy of attention as a national emergency.”
Why Is This Important?
There is a movement in America today claiming that fathers are not necessary for effective child-rearing. But the cold, hard facts prove otherwise. The statistics show that children who grow up without a father are four times likelier to be poor, nine times likelier to drop out of school, and 11 times likelier to commit a violent crime.
A state-by-state analysis conducted by the Heritage Foundation found that a 10 percent increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent homes typically leads to a 17 percent increase in juvenile crime. Of course, these correlations are not exact. Many children overcome the effects of fatherlessness with the help of a grandparent, uncle or other male role model. But it is naive to think absentee fathers do not have an effect on society.
There is a direct link between family breakdown and major societal problems. It is no coincidence that the per capita rate of violent crime has doubled in the United States since 1960, and the percentage of Americans living in a home that receives some form of means-tested welfare has also doubled.
The vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative summed up the situation for the Washington Times:“America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this: Deal with absent fathers, and the rest follows.”
What Does the Bible Say?
The foundation of a strong nation is strong families. The Bible tells of a time when upside-down families would cause great societal problems: “Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:11-12).
This chapter shows that when there is a lack of strong, male leadership in a nation, women rule and children rebel. This leads to the land becoming desolate. This is exactly what is happening in America today.
The greatest and most damaging conspiracy today is the one against fatherhood. To learn more about a father’s role in society, request our free booklet Conspiracy Against Fatherhoodby Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.
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This leader with a Ph.D. in history has a habit of rewriting it.
In recent months, there has been a lot of talk about restarting peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis. However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a message to the Palestinian General Council on January 14 that proved peace talks could never work.
In his speech, Abbas declared that Israel “is a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness. The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the Promised Land—call it whatever you want. Everything has been made up” (emphasis added throughout).
How do you negotiate with someone who denies your historical existence?
It is unbelievably ironic that this leader with a Ph.D. in history often rewrites that history to suit his own narrative. Thousands of years of historical and archaeological evidence clearly demonstrate the opposite of what Abbas has repeatedly claimed.
Abbas has a long track record of denying the Jews’ claim to the land of Israel. Jerusalem Post compiled a list of some of the most egregious Abbas-isms in a report on January 16. In August 2000, Abbas said, “They [the Jews] claim that 2,000 years ago they had a temple; I challenge the claim that this is so.” In August 2012, he again denied the existence of the Jewish temple, calling it “the alleged temple.”
In February that same year, he said that archaeological digs in Jerusalem were an attempt by the Zionists to “vindicate the Israeli narrative.” According to him, they have not turned up any concrete evidence of Israel’s history. In January 2014, he accused Israelis of attempting “to change Jerusalem’s landscape in every detail [in order to] invent a history” because they are the victims of “delusional myths” about Israeli ownership of the land.
He claimed in March 2016 that the Palestinians pre-dated Abraham. In May that year, he proclaimed that the Palestinians invented a “Canaanite-Palestinian alphabet more than 6,000 years ago.” As Jerusalem Post pointed out, that is a truly remarkable feat: “[T]he very word ‘Palestine’ was invented by the Romans only in the first century c.e., and there were no expressions of distinctly Palestinian Arab nationalism until the 20th centuryc.e.”
According to Abbas, Israel has fabricated not only its own history, but even worse, he says that reports of the Holocaust are also greatly exaggerated. In fact, the Jews were actually the ones behind killing millions of their own people! The Post continued:
In his 1983 Ph.D. dissertation-turned-book titled The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement, Abbas asserted that David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders “collaborated with Hitler” and wanted the Nazis to kill Jews, because “having more victims meant greater rights and stronger privilege to join the negotiating table for dividing the spoils of war once it was over.”The “real” number of Jews murdered by the Nazis was “much lower” than 6 million and might well have been “below 1 million,” Abbas wrote. “Many scholars have debated the figure of 6 million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.”Asked about his Holocaust writings in a January 2013 interview with a Lebanese television station, Abbas replied: “I challenge anyone to deny the relationship between Zionism and Nazism before World War ii.”He added that he has “70 more books that I still haven’t published” that he says would prove his claims.
There is a growing push in the Palestinian movement to deny Jewish heritage in the land of Israel. Abbas’s speeches have been dominated by this same anti-history rhetoric. He has denied Israel’s history and the Holocaust for decades, still he continues the charade that he is someone who can be relied upon in peace negotiations.
Here is my response as an archaeologist who digs in Jerusalem: Archaeological evidence of Israel’s historical claim to its own land is everywhere. You would have to be intentionally blind in order not to see it. In fact, I would even say that there is more proof than Israeli archaeologists claim! In many cases, these archaeologists actually downplaytheir history, because that history is also biblical history.
I am working on an archaeological dig in Jerusalem in an area that is just south of the Temple Mount. You could throw a stone and hit the Temple Mount wall. We are digging in a layer that is 2,000 years old, and what do we find? Implements, pottery and artifacts that clearly reveal a Jewish presence there.
We have found vessels made of stone in this area. In most other places, you will find pottery, not stone vessels. But 2,000 years ago, the Jews made the vessels for the temple out of stone. These vessels had to be as pure as possible, and they considered pottery too impure. So if you dig where the Bible says the temple was anciently, you will find a lot of stone vessels.
If you put a spade in the ground in Jerusalem and dig down far enough, you will find Jewish heritage!That is simply a fact. Any archaeologist who digs in this area would tell you the same, if they are honest. But Mahmoud Abbas claims that Israel’s history is made up. This is a leader who is supposed to work out peace with the Israelis—but he doesn’t even believe Israel’s documented history!
The peace talks may resume at some point, despite Abbas’s comments, because Israel is desperate to make peace. However, your Bible tells us without a doubt that peace negotiations will not work! Hosea calls the Israeli peace process “Judah’s wound.” Israel wants peace, but its peace partners want to destroy it and its history.
That same Bible proclaims thousands of years of ancient Israel’s history—the kind of history that Abbas denies. Dozens upon dozens of indisputable archaeological discoveries also back up this history. If you dig in the ground in Jerusalem, you will find evidence of Israel’s claim to the land.
Denying Israel’s history won’t make it go away. The evidence is there! We have to let the stones speak!
If you want to know more about what the Bible says about archaeology and the history of the Jews in Israel, read Gerald Flurry’s article “Archaeology Thunders: ‘Behold Your God!’”
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Listen to the Feb. 1, 2018, episode of the Trumpet Daily Radio Show.
From 2008 to 2016, the mainstream media swooned over Barack Obama—he could do no wrong. In 2017, the gloves came off and those same media outlets began a relentless assault against President Donald Trump. During the Obama presidency, the media willingly ignored, and even worked to suppress, anything that would bring Obama negative publicity. For Trump, however, it has been the opposite. On today’s radio show, I explain how the media war in America is dividing the nation and destroying our ability to find the truth.
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