Volume 2 Issue
23All articles linked to this newsletter are for reference only.
Volume 2 Issue
23Jerusalem To Be Sealed
Off
By Randy Loudenslager
Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is going ahead with a plan to seal off Jerusalem in it's entirety. Using look-out towers, electronic cameras, trenches and more military checkpoints, Israel will attempt to seal out the majority of terrorist attacks Jerusalem is currently suffering.
Sealing off this ancient city will be no small task since it not only involves the old walled city but all of modern Jerusalem as well. Long dreamed of by Israel is the uniting of all of Jerusalem as the Jewish capital of Israel. Israelis bristle at calls for internationalizing Jerusalem as a world city. The Palestinians deny that the Jews ever occupied Jerusalem in the ancient past and even omit any mention of Israel in school text books.
The Israeli government has acted swiftly in the wake of the American statements of no confidence in Yassar Arafat. They have consolidated control over areas of unrest and have contained Arafat to only a few city blocks in the city of Ramallah, acts that only several weeks earlier would have drawn severe criticism from nations all over the world. To seal off this city may be a gamble and will surely infuriate the Palestinians and Arab nations that hold Jerusalem as sacred to Islam, but Ariel Sharon, unlike his predecessor Ehud Barak, is adamant in his refusal to allow the division of Jerusalem as a term of peace negotiations. Sharon's actions seem to support his position and begin to fulfill campaign promises for increased security.
Biblically, the land belongs to Israel. If they choose to seal off Jerusalem from attack they are entitled by God to do so. The world can't and won't see this and so we can expect the rhetoric wars to heat up again. An important issue for believers in Jesus Christ and orthodox Jews is the temple mount. Will Israel seal Jerusalem to the extent that the mount will be saved from further destruction as the Al Aqsa mosque is expanded into what is being billed as the world's largest mosque? Will the Temple Mount Faithful realize their dream of building the new temple? These are events worth watching.