A NEW ERA FOR ISRAEL

This is not a New Year on any calendar that I know, but something new is happening in the unfolding of Israel's history. Two events, one outside of Israel and one within, have given rise to my "Hallelujah!", and my suggestion of a "New Era".

First the external one:Tony Abbot, the Prime Minister of Australia, has announced that his government will no longer refer to "East Jerusalem" as "occupied East Jerusalem", as most of the rest of the world is wont to do. 

This declaration is founded on his understanding that according to International Law, which, contrary to the understanding accepted in most of the Western world, reveals that from Balfour on to the San Remo conclusions, through the League of Nations declaration and the Mandate set up to carry out the Allied Powers' will to "reconstitute" a Homeland for the Jews in their ancient land, all of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, everything left after the British lopped off about 80% of the Mandate land and gave it to a Hashemite king, calling it "Transjordan", belongs, without any further question, to Israel.

If anyone around Mr. Harper is reading this, please encourage him to follow Mr. Abbot's lead and change Canada's official Foreign Policy to end its erroneous use of "illegal" referring to the Israeli communities, including what some call "East Jerusalem", that Israel has developed in Judea and Samaria. To call these communities "illegal", requires the rejection of International Law.

Secondly, Israel's election of Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin, a Knesset Member, son of a prominent Israeli family with a solid Rabbinic heritage, a Major in the IDF, and a well known lawyer, as the President of Israel on June 10, 2014 sets the stage for a new era in Israeli history. 

Before I develop this theme, let me provide a Biblical foundation.

The Torah potion for this Shabbat is Numbers 13:1-15:41; the Haftarah, Joshua 2:1-24.

Numbers tells the story of the selection of 12 explorers, one from each of the 12 Tribes, to go into and report what they find in the LAND Promised by The LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 400 years ago to their descendants, the very people who are now at the border of that land. Moses sends them to explore and bring back some of the fruit of the land. 

Below are 2 images of the area they visited as they are today.

Caleb, son of Jephunneh, of the Tribe of Judah, and Hoshea, son of Nun, of the Tribe of Ephraim, are the only two who return with a clear positive word to GO. They see exactly what the others see, but, unlike the others, they declare, in Faith, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can do it". The others returned with fabulous fruit from the land, as did Caleb and Joshua, but with fear in their hearts.

A note on Hoshea/Joshua: Moses changed the name Hoshea (meaning "salvation"), to Joshua (meaning "The LORD Saves").

Now Moses was a man of whom the LORD says that he is unlike any of the LORD's other Prophets; all of the other Prophets "hear the Word of the LORD" through dreams and visions; Moses "hears the Word of the LORD directly from the MOUTH OF THE LORD". In the previous chapter of Numbers, when Miriam and Aaron, Moses sister and brother, challenge Moses' authority, the LORD calls all three to meet with Him and says, "Listen to my words:

'When a Prophet of the LORD is among you,

I reveal myself to him in visions,

I speak to him in dreams.

But this is not true of my servant Moses;

he is faithful in all my house.

With him I speak face to face,

clearly and not in riddles;

he sees the form of the LORD.'"

Moses, this man with whom the LORD, the Creator of the Universe, the God who called Abram to follow Him and made a Covenant with him, his son Isaac, and not Ishmael, and his grandson Jacob, and not Esau, speaks "face to face", now renames Hoshea and calls him Joshua, "The LORD Saves". (Names seem to be rather important in the Hebrew Scriptures).

The Haftarah portion, Joshua 2:1-24, recounts the story of another sending of explorers into the land to check out Jericho before Joshua moves in to follow Moses' instructions. Joshua now sends only 2, perhaps because he remembers that only 2 of the 12 sent 40 years ago saw as the LORD saw.

At any rate, these 2 find shelter in the home of a woman who tells them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below."

The story includes a "scarlet cord in the window" story within the story that is quite fascinating, but which I will not address now.

The conclusion of this explorer story is the dramatic opposite of the one in Numbers. When these 2 return, they say to Joshua, "The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."

From here Joshua leads the people across the Jordan with these instructions: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are the Levites carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before".

My emphases are a comment on Joshua's state of mind and his confidence: he has not been this way before either, but the reputation of the LORD's Name has gone before them, and the ark of the LORD's Covenant with them, His Presence among His people, is going before them on the shoulders of the priests, those set apart for the LORD's service; so Joshua can advance confidently.

From Jericho, through Hazor and finally in battles with the Anakites, "Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. THEN THE LAND HAD REST FROM WAR."

Of this Joshua, we are told, "As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone that the LORD commanded Moses".

I suggest that Israel today, particularly in the context of the 2 good news pieces mentioned at the outset, needs to consider a new, bold, confident and much more assertive position on the legality of their right to Judea and Samaria, and to move forward immediately on a path to implement their rightful sovereignty over their land.

Do not let the opinions of the US, EU and UN, all of which are based on false information pedalled by ingenious purveyors of lies, influence your thinking; move forward, like Joshua, to do what the LORD has brought you back to the land to do.

I said at the out set that I would return to develop the theme; well I will need to do that in the next blog. I felt I needed to make very clear the foundation from which I will discuss those current events. I trust I have done that.