Why is Israel So Controversial?

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Hey there, you know there are two competing views of Israel. One is by some

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that call it a miracle and a cause for celebration or others that call it a

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calamity, something to be exposed and stood against. How can this be? Stick with

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me and I will begin to explain it.

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Welcome to the Israel answers series connecting Israel, the Bible and you.

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Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a

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scriptural perspective to equip the Christian world with a balance and

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biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes which will ignite

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your faith and bring the Bible to life in your everyday world. Now let's join

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Susan with your Israel answers.

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Well if you want to keep peace around the Thanksgiving table you're always

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told avoid politics and religion. Well I would add one more, avoid talking about

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Israel. It has become that controversial. Why is that? That's what I want to talk

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about today. Many Christians have traveled to Israel and have come home

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loving the country. Some are totally committed to blessing the Jewish people

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and politically supporting Israel with great fervor. But others in our world

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say that Israel is evil. They even use words like Nazi and that they're causing

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great suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people and therefore how

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could Christians support that? So I want to begin talking about that today and

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over the next coming weeks. This is just absolutely not true. I've been traveling

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to Israel for over 40 years now. I hate to admit it but I have. I've studied. I

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got a master's degree there. I've studied for a lifetime on all the issues

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surrounding Israel politically, theologically, culturally, religiously,

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all of it. And I can tell you that this depiction of Israel as so evil is

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just wrong. So in this episode I want to begin to talk about why is Israel so

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controversial? What is it behind the controversy? And then in the coming

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weeks we're going to begin talking about just why is it that we believe

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Christians should be supporting Israel. So first is Israel was the first and has

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been a sufferer of fake news before Trump ever came up with the term. Yes, there

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was always this fake news about Israel. I was very perplexed by it. Back in the

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80s when I was studying there and you would see what was really the truth and

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yet how did the media depict Israel? And then what did the Arab leaders say about

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Israel? And it didn't add up. And we all were talking about the lies in the media

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about Israel. So now we call lies fake news and that really is what was there.

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We learned as we studied the situation not to go by what the Arab leaders said

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in English to the Western world, you had to go by what they were saying,

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especially in Arabic to their own people. And there was a great difference there.

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And they were trying to pull one over on the Western world. A lot of reasons for

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that I won't go into. I just want to give you one example of what I'm talking

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about. That was back in, I believe, 1994. Yasser Arafat, who was the head of the

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Palestine Liberation Organization, met with the Prime Minister of Israel at the

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White House, shook hands and began to a process for peace. Right after that, Yasser

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Arafat, who actually was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for this, went to

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Johannesburg, South Africa and spoke in a large mosque there. Now he did speak in

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English, but he was in Johannesburg, South Africa. He didn't expect anybody to be

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listening other than the faithful Muslims that were there at mosque that day.

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But someone secretly recorded it and took it out to the world. And after making

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these overtures about peace and his commitment to peace, he went to Johannesburg

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and he said this, that it was a jihadist war that will continue. And he called for

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the faithful there in Johannesburg to get behind the fight. He said, Jerusalem is

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not only for the Palestinian people, it's for all the Muslim people. You are

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responsible for Palestine and for Jerusalem. So he was calling them to get

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involved in this jihad, this holy war. And then he said this, this agreement,

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meaning the agreement that he had just made with Israel, I'm not considering it

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more than the agreement which was signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the

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Quraish. Wow, what does that mean? Well, we know in history that the agreement that

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Muhammad made with the Quraish tribe allowed Muhammad to go into Mecca and

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to pray there. But two years into the agreement, Muhammad was now strong enough

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to defeat Mecca and take it over. So he called the agreement to have been

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abrogated and he went and slaughtered the Quraish tribe and conquered Mecca. So

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the lesson here is that in Islam there is a type of agreement that is based on

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this history. Therefore it is an agreement that can be broken as soon as the

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Islamic forces are strong enough to complete and battle what they were not

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able to do previously. So that's how Arafat saw the agreement. Of course,

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this word did get out to the West and there was a lot of a case about it. But

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often this type of thing is said in Arabic, it's not broadcast to the West. So

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there is a fake news you have to be able to navigate to get to the truth.

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Secondly, Israel is up against ideologies that are ruling our world. The

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ruling ideologies in our world today are globalism, secularism, and relative

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moralism, or moral relativism, I should say. So Israel flies in the face of all

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three of these because Israel is a nation state based on nationalist

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aspirations of a century ago, while today globalism looks down upon

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nationalism. Secondly, Israel is a Jewish nation state. It is for the Jewish

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people where they are free to practice the Jewish religion and so a lot of the

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state holidays and culture is based on the Jewish religion. This flies in the

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face of the ruling ideology of today of secularism. The secularists look down on

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any Jewish or Christian observation of religious practices. Now, I have to say

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that they do not look down upon Muslim observance, but they do look down upon

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Jewish and Christian observance. Thirdly, the world is increasingly

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relativistic in its morals. So in other words, there's no right and wrong. There's

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no truth and falsehood. There's no black and white in the matter. It's all gray

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and it's all up to you. You determine what you believe is true. You determine

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what you believe is right and what you believe is moral. That is moral

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relativism. Well, the Jewish world gave our world the ten commandments and based

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on the ten commandments is our whole system of jurisprudence. What nations

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have determined is right and wrong. What is moral? And so a world that's moving

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towards moral relativism hates the ten commandments, hates the morals of the

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Bible, and the Bible is the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Thirdly,

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Israel is up against the age-old hatred called anti-Semitism. Now, just a couple

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of weeks ago, I talked about the history of anti-Semitism and in the future, we're

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going to talk more about anti-Semitism, but I just want to share this one

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statistic that sort of shows you the problem that Israel is up against. In

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2014, there was a global study of anti-Semitism and they interviewed people

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in over 140 countries, I think, and they determined that 25% of the world's

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population holds anti-Semitic views. Whoa, that is a lot of people and 70% of

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them have never met a Jewish person. So what that tells us is that we have a

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problem here of propaganda, of misinformation, of disinformation, of

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lies, of fake news that has destroyed the reputation of the Jewish people and

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25% of the world's population. Israel is up against a global problem here. This is

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not solved overnight or by any one little group in one little corner of the

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world. It's a big problem and she needs our help with it. Fourthly, Israel is up

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against a spiritual war that is not easily understood by a secular world, by

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non-Christians even, and we find it described in three key verses in the

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Bible. The first one is in Genesis 3.15 where the Lord speaks to the evil

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serpent and says that there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman

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until her seed will crush the head of the serpent. This is a perfect description

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of the enmity between the woman, which is the Jewish people that will give birth

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to this Messiah and the evil forces against the Messiah. In the end, the

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Messiah wins, but for millennia we have enmity and we have hatred that is

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spiritual. It's not about wars and militaries and nations and governments.

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They just reflect a spiritual reality of enmity. We see it also in Psalm 83 verses

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1 through 4, which I'm paraphrasing here, but it says, oh God, those who hate you

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have declared. Let us cut them all from being a nation that the name of Israel

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would be declared no more. Whoa, the enemies of God himself are against this

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people seeking to wipe them off the face of the earth. It's very spiritual, but

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it's being expressed in military confrontation, in governments, in armies, in

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government policies. The third verse I want to share with you is actually a

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whole chapter. It's in the New Testament, the book of Revelation chapter 12. This

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chapter describes the people of Israel as a woman who's crowned by the sun and

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the moon in the twelve stars for the twelve tribes of Israel, and she's

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pregnant and sitting at her feet waiting to devour the male child that she will

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deliver is an evil dragon. Throughout the rest of the chapter it describes how

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that this dragon is not able to destroy the male child and comes after the woman

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and she is whisked into the wilderness for safety. It says that the earth

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even covers her and protects her from this, and then the dragon gets so frustrated

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that what does he do? He turns and goes after her quote other offspring, those

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with the testimony of Jesus. You see the church was born out of Judaism. It was

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born out of the people of Israel. And so here we have this depiction of this evil

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spiritual fight against Israel, the woman, against her male child, the Messiah, and

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against her other offspring, the church. So this takes us to my last and final

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point this week. Not only is Israel up against these forces, but the Christians

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are too. We are also up against fake news like we've never been against it

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before. It is astounding the hatred for the Christian world, the hatred especially

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for the Bible-based Christian segment of Christianity, evangelical

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Christianity. We are maligned, we are hated, we are falsely accused, fake news.

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We are also up against the same ideologies against the globalism, the

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secularism, and the moral relativism, very much so, and we are up against the

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same spiritual war as I just explained and depicted in Revelation 12. So I hope

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that this little summary has helped you understand a little bit of what's behind

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the controversy against Israel. Now next week we're going to talk about an issue

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that is used against Israel as an accusation and that is, was Israel really

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founded on stolen land? And the next week we're going to talk about is Israel a

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racist, apartheid state? And then after that I want to begin listing for you

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reasons why Christians should support Israel and stand with the Jewish people.

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So do stick with me, make sure to subscribe to this channel so that you

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receive notifications every week when we put up a new teaching. And I want to

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offer you a free download. We have a download, 10 reasons to stand with Israel.

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Actually it's 10 reasons why Christians should stand with Israel. Get your free

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download by going to the link in today's show note or go to www.outofzionshow.com

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and click on the tab for resources. We'll have it there as well. But be sure

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download this free resource for you. We're going to be talking about some of

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the points in it in the coming week. So we want to make sure that you have it.

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You can print it out. You can share it with friends and family. Invite them to

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join us here on the Out of Zion show for our Israel Answer series. So we'll see

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you back here next week and until then, God bless.