Borders of Israel

A. Biblical Borders

According to the Hebrew Bible the Land of Israel is the region which G-D promised to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. After G-D changed Jacob’s name to "Israel" (Genesis 32:28) the promised land became known as the "Land of Israel", in Hebrew "ארץ ישראל"(Eretz Yisrael).

When the Lord made the covenant with Abram, he said: “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Genesis 15:18). In this passage of scripture the Lord defined the northern and southern borders of Israel, long before the nation of Israel came into existence. From the river of Egypt in the south to the great river Euphrates in the north would include all of modern day Lebanon and three-fourths of modern day Syria.

When the Lord spoke to Moses about the Promised Land in (Numbers 34:1-15), he specifically laid out the southern, western, northern and eastern borders of the Land. Thus the promised borders of Israel run from the wilderness on the east side of the Jordan river to the uttermost sea (Red Sea) on the west side of the Sinai: and from the Euphrates river in the north, to the river of Egypt in the south.

Finally, in (Ezekiel 47:13-20), we read about the borders of the Land in which the twelve tribes of Israel will live during the final redemption, at the end of days. The borders of the land described by the text in Ezekiel include the northern border of modern Lebanon, eastwards (the way of Hethlon) to Tz’dad and Hatzar-Einon in modern Syria. On the side of the Negev toward the south it will be from Tamar (Ein Gedi) on the western shore of the Dead Sea to Meribah Kadesh (Kadesh Barnea). The west side will be the Mediterranean Sea. The territory defined by these borders is divided into twelve lots for each of the twelve tribes.

B. Historical Borders

Under King David, Israel expanded greatly, controlling a number of weaker client states like Philistia, Moab, Edom, Ammon, with a number of Aramaean city-states (Aram-Zobah and Aram-Damascus) becoming vassal states; the imperial border stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Desert, from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River. According to the biblical account, the empire had a large land area.

However, few archaeological remains of the Kingdom of David and Solomon have been uncovered to date that would accord with the huge conquests described in the Bible. The divided Kingdoms of Judah and Israel came into existence during the 8th century BC. While Israel encompassed the north of the country, including Samaria and the Galilee as far as Dan, Judah was restricted to a comparatively small area around Jerusalem, with a northern boundary near Mitzpah and a southern one around Hebron, probably not projecting effective rule as far as Beersheva.

C. 1948 Borders

The biblical concept of Eretz Israel was the basis of its re-establishment as a state in the modern era. During two millennia of exile and with an almost continuous small Jewish presence in that ancestral Biblical land, the area was seen as a land of destiny, and always with hope for some form of redemption and return. It was seen as a national home and refuge, that this land was always seen as central to Jewish life.

This idea however saw little success, until the British accepted ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’ in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Britain's job was to implement the Balfour Declaration, but the British government had made conflicting promises to both the Jews and the Arabs, promising each their own autonomous area.

Following Arab revolts between 1936 - 1939, Britain issued the White Paper, essentially reneging on the principles set forth in the Mandate as well as the Balfour Declaration. Severe restrictions were placed on Jewish immigration, as well as on Jewish land-owning rights. During the years of World War II, the small quota was quickly reached, and Jews were denied entry to Palestine.

After World War II, the United Nations (the former League of Nations), adopted the Partition Plan, essentially dividing Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem under international control. This led to Britain ending its mandate and Israel declaring its independence in May of 1948.

On May 14, 1948, the last British forces left Haifa, and the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, in accordance with the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Both superpower leaders, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, immediately recognized the new state. Arab League members Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq declared war and invaded the next day. Saudi-Arabia and Sudan also sent forces.

The war was fought along the entire border of the country: against Lebanon and Syria in the north; Iraq and Transjordan - renamed Jordan during the war - in the east; Egypt, assisted by contingents from the Sudan - in the south; and Palestinians and volunteers from Arab countries in the interior of the country.

The Arab war to destroy Israel failed. Indeed, because of their aggression, the Arabs wound up with less territory than they would have had if they had accepted partition. When Israel declared statehood in 1948, it didn't declare borders -- but in 1949, it agreed with each of its neighbors on ceasefire lines that also defined what is today called the West Bank and Gaza.

The borders have changed from time to time with developments in Israel's military and diplomatic situation. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt on the southwest.

The border with Egypt was demarcated in 1906 between Britain and the Ottoman Empire. The borders with Lebanon, Syria and Jordan are based on those drawn up by the United Kingdom and France in anticipation of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War and the carve up of the Ottoman Empire between them. They are referred to as the 1923 borders, being those of Mandate Palestine, which were settled in 1923.

Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan have been formally recognized as part of the peace treaties with those countries, and with Lebanon as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreement.

D. 1967 Borders

After a period of high tension between Israel and its neighbors, Israel found out that Egypt prepared an attack. Egypt had massed approximately 100,000 of its troops in the Sinai, Syria and Jordan had also sent troops to their borders. On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched strikes pre-emptive surprise air-strikes of a defensive nature against the Arab forces. The Six-Day War involved three distinct battlefronts, tied together by a shared desire on the part of the surrounding Arab states to eliminate Israel. The outcome was a swift and decisive Israeli victory. Israel took effective control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank of the Jordan River (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

After the war the Sinai was returned to Egypt. As a matter of fact, Israel returned 90% of the territories it gained lawfully in the six-day war in 1967. No other nation in the world has ever relinquished territories acquired from an aggressor in an act of self-defense. But Israel fulfilled its part in UN resolution 242 adopted on November 22, 1967, as the cornerstone for what it called "a just and lasting peace" that recognizes Israel's need for "secure and recognized boundaries.” This resolution became the foundation for all peace negotiations until today.

Palestine is Genocide

Palestine is Genocide

Recapping this Week's Events

The Muslim Brotherhood organized an Islamic revolt in Egypt, forcing President Mubarak to resign.

The media portrayed it as a struggle for democracy and human rights disaster, leaving out much of what goes on behind the scenes. We should have learned the lesson how Islamic groups have already taken over in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza by democratic means.

Even though the Muslim Brotherhood was forbidden to operate in Egypt, it emerged, according to Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman as the most organized opposition movement.

The Egyptian president responded to calls from his US counterpart Barack Obama that he step down saying, "you don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now." – Mubarak was a dictator who kept the radical Muslims under control. He also warned that the Muslim Brotherhood would take power in Egypt if he were to resign now. – This is exactly what happened today, on Saturday, February 5th.

The West has the mistaken tendency to underestimate the hostility of the Muslim Brotherhood. But President Obama seems to think they are the solution to the problem. "The White House appears to be leaving Hosni Mubarak, an ally for three decades and lynchpin of Mideast stability, twisting slowly in the wind," writes David Horowitz of the Freedom Center.

Wednesday, Feb. 2nd, President Barack Obama delivered an ultimatum to Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman and the army and security chiefs: Mubarak must be removed or else US aid to Egypt will be cut off.

The Muslim Brotherhood has always made Islamic world domination one of its ultimate goals. It also opposed Egypt's 30-year-old peace treaty with Israel. Muslim Brotherhood leaders have systematically called for “re-conquest” of “Islamic territories” from Andalusia (southern Spain) to Sicily and the Balkans.

Many Western analysts agree that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are one and the same. One leading Brotherhood cleric has said: "Kill Jews – to the very last one.” A Brotherhood takeover of Egypt would only strengthen Hamas in Gaza. Another Brotherhood leader told an Arab language newspaper Monday that Egyptians “should prepare for war against Israel."

The White House probably still doesn’t realize the extent of the catastrophe into which it has pushed the Middle East. None of us know what the final outcome will be in Egypt, Jordan Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon and later Saudi Arabia. The only thing we know is that they all want to destroy Israel and kill the Jews. – It is a very old war that started with Isaac and Ishmael way back in the Bible and still rages on to this day.

Israel witnessed in horror how quickly the White House abandons its’ allies. Obama has once again shown his hand in protecting Islam at the expense of Israel's survival in every way he possibly can. He quickly turned on an old friend to the US in favor of the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood getting into power in Egypt.

Netanyahu charged that Iran is looking forward to Egypt becoming "another Gaza, run by radical forces that oppose everything that the democratic world stands for." Now Israel must prepare for an Islamic terror state rising from Egypt's ashes, because a Muslim Brotherhood takeover could lead to the imposition of Shariah law and dramatic changes in Egypt’s relationship to its neighbors.

Will Iran use its influence on the Muslim Brotherhood to steer Egypt away from its peace treaty with Israel and into the camp of Muslim radicals? If so, this coming war has the very distinct possibility of nukes being used and dragging the rest of the world into war as well.

What Will Happen In Egypt?

For the last few days we have been hearing about riots in the streets of Cairo threatening to oust President Hosni Mubarak from his 30 year reign as dictator of Egypt.

The media makes us think this is a good thing because it's all about fighting for democracy, however the facts in Cairo are quite different. The revolution started on Friday, encouraged by the Imams in the mosques. The protest for survival, that they can no longer afford the price of food and there are no jobs, has been put together with the Islamic propaganda they have listened to all their lives.

What the West needs to understand is that the ultimate goal of Islam is Muslim Imperialism. Muslims want to conquer the world for Islam to usher in a Caliphate—that is, a supreme totalitarian Islamic government that would forcibly impose Sharia law on everyone. So in a way , WWIII has already begun, but most people don’t know it.

Mubarak's position is weak at best and his only option to stay in power is to begin shooting protesters dead in the street like they did in Iran. - The man who wants to replace him is the former head of I.A.E.A Mohamed ElBaradei who shielded the Iranian nuclear weapons programs for years.

Looking over his shoulder is the Muslim Brotherhood connected to the Wahabi out of Saudi Arabia who supplied the terrorist for 9/11. He is seen as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt.

What is the Muslim Brotherhood? The Society of the Muslim Brothers (الإخوان Al-Ikhwān) is the world's oldest and largest Islamic political group. It was founded in Egypt in 1928 by the Islamic scholar and Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna. - The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the"sole reference point for the life of a Muslim family, individual, community and state".

The Brotherhood quickly gained many followers throughout North Africa and the Middle East and influenced the development of Muslim groups in other regions. It became politicized after 1938, rejecting Westernization, modernization, and secularization. Suppressed in Egypt after a 1954 assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser, it operated clandestinely in the 1960s and '70s. Beginning in the late 1980s, it experienced an upsurge; though its candidates were often listed under other parties, Brotherhood candidates competed in legislative elections in Egypt and Jordan. As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as Independents. -Other groups with different names, such as Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbullah, are today all part of it.

The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in it. - But Reuter’s News reported just today that 34 of its members, including seven members of the leadership, walked out of prison on Sunday after relatives of prisoners overcame the guards, a Brotherhood official said. The relatives stormed the prison in Wadi el-Natroun, 80 miles northwest of Cairo, and set free several thousand of the inmates, Brotherhood office manager Mohamed Osama told Reuters.

Emboldened by these demonstrations, other surrounding Islamic countries are following suit. Tunisia, Albania, Jordan, Yemen, - just to name a few.

Will the Muslim Brotherhood succeed to gain control? Will fanatical Islam end up ruling Egypt? At the time I am writing this, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei is calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Whatever happens in Egypt, it will surely affect Israel and the entire West.

Thoughts for the New Year

According to the Roman calendar we have just started the year 2011. The Romans counted the years starting from the date of the birth of Jesus. The Jewish calendar starts the year in September. It counts the number of years since creation, calculated by adding up the ages of people in the Bible back to the time of creation, which happened 5771 years ago.

All throughout the Jewish Bible, from Genesis to Malachi, hundreds of specific scriptures declare that G-D gave the ancient land of Canaan to the Jewish people, as their Promised Land to enjoy forever, with Jerusalem as their sacred capital.

The understanding of this covenant to Abraham is vital. The important point to realize is that this covenant is unconditional, that is, G-D never breaks a promise and will therefore not break this promise that He made to Abraham so long ago. - Even though sin and disobedience caused a temporary loss of this covenant blessing (2000 years), the covenant itself never got cancelled.

Prophet Isaiah predicted the rebirth of Israel with these words: “Who ever heard such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Is a country born in one day? Is a nation brought forth all at once? For as soon as Tzyion went into labor, she brought forth her children” - (Isaiah 66:8). Remarkably, when the British mandate over Palestine, authorized by the League of Nations, ended at midnight on May 15, 1948, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, declared publicly that Israel was once again a nation and now took its rightful place on the stage of world history.

Without doubt, the rebirth of the nation of Israel on May 15, 1948, is one of the most extraordinary of all the prophecies in the ancient Scriptures. During the last century, millions of Jews from more than seventy nations, often at great personal cost, have undertaken the arduous journey toward the fulfillment of the age-old Passover dream: “Next year in Jerusalem”.

Some people object; it can’t be the current State of Israel, because it is a secular government. – While the return to the Land today is a physical and political event, the Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the physical re-gathering and restoration of Israel is only a prelude to ultimate spiritual restoration. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Others say that the Land was stolen from the Palestinians and should be returned to them. - There never was a Palestinian state governed by Arab Palestinians in the history of civilization nor a nation referred to as "Palestine". After the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Jordanians lost the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and Gaza, Jordanian soldiers became “Palestinians” - basically over night. Even the so-called leader of these "Palestinian" people, Yasser Arafat, was an Egyptian! In short, these Arab "Palestinians" are a manufactured people...a people with no history and no authenticity... whose sole purpose for existence is to destroy the Jewish State! The very notion of a "Palestinian Arab nation" having ancient attachments to the Holy Land going back to time immemorial is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon the world! – I don’t know if it was Lenin or Hitler who formed the philosophy that if you told a big enough lie and you repeated it often enough, the people would begin to believe it as truth. We're seeing exactly that strategy at work in the world today. In fact, the conflict that most threatens world peace is built on an enormous lie.

So, what will happen next? The Bible says there will be a battle over Jerusalem. There is also a prophecy about Damascus going up in flames. There is the promise of the Messiah and the Temple being re-built.

Don’t wait for your newspaper if you can read tomorrow’s headlines ahead of time. I encourage you to read these Scriptures if you want to understand where we are in God’s prophetic timetable.

Look to the nation of Israel as G-D’s promise for His Land and His people will be fulfilled.

The Blame Game

The blame-game starts early on, - with Adam and Eve. They begin their lives in the Garden of Eden. There, G-D provides for all their needs, in return for which He imposes some commandments. One of them was not to eat from the tree of good and evil.


So now appears the Devil in form of a serpent. He talks Eve into trying the fruit from the forbidden tree. You know the story. She eats of the tree’s fruit and gives a fruit to Adam, who eats it as well.

Soon after that, G-D calls out to them and asks Adam if he ate from the forbidden fruit.

Now we encounter the age-old problem; the inability of most people to acknowledge their guilt forthrightly but, instead, to “scapegoat” someone or something else. Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent.

There is no group in the world that has been the target of as many twisted and ludicrous accusations as the Jews.

Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus. The fact that the Temple high priest was an appointee of the Romans, put there to protect Roman interests, was ignored. The crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment, reserved exclusively for those guilty of crimes against the empire, in accordance with Roman (not Jewish) laws. The actual reason for the execution was the fact that Jesus talked of his kingdom (against Caesar).

Tens of millions of European Christians once believed – and tens of millions of Muslims believe today – that Jews kidnap and slaughter non-Jewish children before Passover to use their blood for baking matzo.

Vast numbers of Europeans believed that Jews caused the Plague.

Much of France believed that the near-bankruptcy brought on by its failure to build the Panama Canal was caused by the Jews.

The great majority of Arabs and tens of millions of Muslims believe that the Jews (i.e., Israel) are responsible for the poverty, tyranny, absence of freedom and brutality that pervade the Arab world.

Lately, Jews have even been blamed for shark attacks in Egypt.

So, why do the nations always blame the Jews? Why do the nations hate Israel?

There is a very simple explanation to this question. The Jewish people are physical proof of the existence of G-d. The nations hate G-D. Because they hate G-D, they also hate his word, the Torah, and his people, the Jews. After all, there is nothing quite so upsetting to the post-modern ear, as to hear of a universal standard of truth or a "chosen people." It is this very fact which causes so many to hate the Jews. In this modern age of computers and cell phones we tend to forget and deny the concept of Creation. People have begun to believe that they are the creators and able to control what happens in the world. Even among the Jewish People there are those who prefer not to think about G-D. The very idea of a Jewish State - especially one located in the ancient Land of Israel - forces even atheists to take notice.

Jews remind the sinful world of G-D’s rule, and of His laws. People today hate these ideas. Thus we see that anti-Semitism, at its heart, is anti-God and anti-Torah.

However, there's only so long we can get away with putting the blame on someone else. Eventually, G-D himself will force the nations of world to face the consequences of their behavior.

Confused about Zionism?

During an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, September 2010, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed “Zionists” for fostering hostility between the United States and Iran. Muslims generally also accuse the Zionist regime of conducting terrorist activities in the US and around the world, while blaming the Muslims for it.

Too many people in this world have turned on Israel and Zionism with a vengeance.

Palestinians and their supporters have cleverly hijacked the definition of Zionism, and equated it with terrorism. Israel-bashing has become great sport, and even though words may not kill, they create increased confusion among uninformed Westerners.

So what exactly is Zionism? Who is a Zionist?

Zion (ציון‎) is a term that most often refers to Jerusalem and - by extension - the Biblical Land of Israel. The name Zion appears 154 times in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), texts dating back almost three millennia. It referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David. The term Zion came therefore to designate the area of Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and later became a metonym for Solomon's Temple. Zion was eventually used as a name for the city of Jerusalem, the land of Judah, and the people of Israel as a whole.

It is hard to tell the story of Zionism without going back to “lech lecha,” Abraham’s charge in Genesis to “go forth” to a new land, the land of Israel. Every time the Jews were forced to leave the Land, they started yearning to return to their beloved city, Jerusalem. You find some examples in the book of Psalms, which have been frequently recited and even remembered in song lyrics. That’s why the Palestinians didn’t want Boney M. to sing "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, ye-eah, we wept, when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1g8FFRArc. The aspiration of returning to their homeland was held by Jews exiled to Babylon some 2,500 years ago - a hope which subsequently became a reality.

Zionism is therefore nothing else than the yearning of the Jewish people to return to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The yearning to return to Zion (biblical term for both the Land of Israel and Jerusalem) has been the cornerstone of Jewish religious life since the Jewish exile from the land two thousand years ago, and is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture.

The modern term “Zionism” was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum. Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in response to the violent persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Western Europe. It is the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Israel - the historical birthplace of the Jewish people. Modern Zionism fused the ancient Jewish biblical and historical ties to the ancestral homeland with the modern concept of nationalism into a vision of establishing a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel.

The founder of the modern Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, dreamed in his visionary 1896 book “The Jewish State,” of the Jewish state as a liberal model for the world. "We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes peacefully die,” Herzl wrote. “The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind." In this passage, Herzl articulated the essential Zionist message that still holds true, and that echoes in the liberal nationalism of most Western nation states – that only through self-determination can utopian ideals be achieved, that a community first must unite and protect itself before it can become a force for good.

The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Zionism is based on the long connection between the Jewish people and its land, a link which began almost 4,000 years ago when Abraham settled in Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel. It was there that their spiritual identity was shaped. In Israel they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

There never was another state claiming Jerusalem as its capital. It is to the ancient homeland that Jews from all over the world still return to. Israel is not just another country. It is destined to become the fulfillment of Biblical destiny. Those with eyes to see can see that this is already beginning. The Jewish People have begun to return home from all over the world. The only peace process that will work is when Israel decides to become a nation that stands alone with her G-d.

"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by G-d Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy."-- Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971

Zionism is not a political movement, it’s not a terrorist organization; - it’s a move of G-D among his people!