Implementing Prophecies in Lebanon and Palestine
Posted Jul 19, 2006

What is happening in Lebanon and Palestine is a pseudo religious game being played by dominant powers and their surrogates in the region to serve their political interests. The total subjugation of neighboring Arabs to the might of Israel, the total decimation of any Arab and Muslim opposition to the continued brutal occupation of Palestine and the total disregard of the world opinion, are some of the highlights of the most recent conflict sparked in the wake of the kidnapping of ONE Israeli soldier in Ghaza and TWO Israeli soldiers on the Lebanon borders.


The reality of the Middle East cannot be understood through numerous useless United Nations resolutions passed with reference to Palestine, nor can it be understood through the annals of justice and fairness. Rather, it can be understood only through analyzing the behavior and attitude and beliefs of the ultra fanatic religious leadership that govern some of the most powerful groups in the United States and Israel. Regardless of the secular claims of the power elites in the two countries, the fact is that the perspectives and policies n the Middle East by several Christian and Jewish groups are determined on the basis of prophecies that all of them are waiting to be fulfilled. It is no wonder that President Bush and his team as well as Prime Olmert of Israel and his team pursue policies that in their view hasten the fulfillment of prophecies. The dominant Jewish and Christian leaders of Israel and the USA believe in different set of prophecies. The Jewish leadership believes that the Messiah would come and build the third temple and the Christian leadership believes that Jesus would return and engage in the final battle with Jews killing one-third and converting the rest to Christianity.

In this understanding of their religious teachings, the religious and secular leaders of the two communities are concerned only with less than 30 percent of the world population as the others are either defined as antichrist or gentile born without a divine plan without any dignity or decency. Of course, after the enlightenment and renaissance in Western Europe and after the interaction of Christian and Jewish leaders with Muslims, many started saying that non Christians or non Jewish people too have some dignity, but these are later day additions and they are in defiance of what the earlier followers of these religion believed in.

These fanatics have held the entire world as hostage to their religious thinking and have caused billions of people to suffer. It is only in this framework, we can understand the realities in the Middle East. Otherwise who in his right mind would not stand for a people who have been forced to live in refugee camps for the last 60 years in sub human conditions on a land their forefathers inherited from their forefathers? Who in his right mind would justify the occupation of Palestine by the Zionists? Who in his right mind would believe that Israel was justified in forcing itself upon the Middle East? Who in his right mind would believe that Palestinians should not be permitted to return to their homes?

Some people may argue that the US policy in the Middle East is driven by oil interests and the state of Israel is concerned about its security and borders. In a market economy the oil is sold to those who pay a good price. So far, the US has not had any disruption of oil supplies based on this market principle. Oil will not stop flowing and there will always be the buyers of this liquid gold. There is no reason to believe that any other country would replace the US as the main buyer of this commodity in the region. The repeated over-play of the security of Israel or its border is a major facade. Israel has never defined its borders and the statements of a few individuals to drown the Zionist State in the ocean cannot be used to develop a realistic policy in the region. On the contrary it is the survival and dignity of Palestinians that is the core issue. Yet we rarely hear about that because according to religious arguments of those fanatics it is the presence of the state of Israel that is crucial in the divine plan for the region and the world. Obviously, when one is confronted with this type of thinking one cannot look at the reality from any rational or logical or even humanistic perspective. The irony is that none of these prophecies are said to be concrete and many with in the Jewish and Christian faiths have challenged them as forgeries and misinterpretations, yet they are the backbone of the world’s most serious crisis that has taken thousands of lives.

Israel and the US in their attempt to hasten the arrival or return of Messiah adopt policies that go directly against their own religious teachings. For instance the preservation of human life is a sacred duty according to old and New Testament, a duty that has never been held sacred by the dominant religious leaders of the two communities, despite their claims. The two communities can safely be held responsible for some of the biggest carnages that have plagued our world since time immemorial. Of all the deaths that have occurred as a result of war and violence in our world, the two communities account for more than 85 percent of the killings. During the last 100 years these killings have multiplied. The main reason for an increase in human sufferings is that people who believe in these ideas overtly or covertly have assumed powers and prestige in our world. They have manipulated events to suit their interests. They have produced false research and facts to substantiate their argument and they have sedated the people with false hopes and false ideals.

Why are the ordinary human beings not speaking for the suffering of ordinary people in Lebanon, Palestine or for that matter any other place? Simply, because the ordinary person in the USA or Israel or other places have been forced to a life style where there is no room for other people, and where concerns for human rights and human dignity are secondary to the survival of one’s own self or family. Despite the fact that we all are witnessing the massacres of innocent people by a war machine in Lebanon and Palestine, we are unable to speak out because we have become indifferent to human sufferings or many people see in this as a divine plan to bring the Messiah back to the world.

If we fail to realize this reality, we would always be making mistakes in our dealings with others. Under the present intellectual and religious as well as political leadership, neither the state of Israel nor the United States seem to be committed to peace or human dignity in the region. The leadership may use terms such as democracy, human rights and human dignity to deceive the world opinion, but it is essentially committed to the idea of brining the Messiah back to the world.

The only way to counter this might is not through military means but through peaceful means of education and grassroots action. Hamas and Hizbullah fell in the well laid trap of the religious fanatics by arresting Israel soldiers having known that they have no match to the war machine that is lubricated by the world’s only superpower. They cannot escape the responsibility of causing further harms to innocent people as well.

A response to the fanatics in the US and Israel who can be described as lunatics, would not come through these emotional or childish acts as we saw in the past few days. It would not come through military means as the might of Israel and the US would crush and crumble any opposition in the Middle East instantly. Rather, the response would come through educating people in the United States that the prophecies they believe in have no basis. That God does not discriminate among His creation on the basis of chosen and gentiles and that God does not allow conflicts to escalate on the basis of one’s claim over land, property or anything material. Unless people are convinced that God has plans not only for Jews and Christians but for the rest of humanity and that His grace and mercy supersedes His wrath and anger, and unless the existing power elites are replaced with those who view human beings as one entity, things are not going to change. This may be a very long struggle, but without this struggle, this change is not possible.


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Here are the passages from the Old and New Testaments which are used by the Zionists and Christian evangelists to justify the continued occupation of Palestine.


Ezekiel 38:1-23


1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.

19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.

22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.


Ezekiel 39:1-29


1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:

10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog.

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.

13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.

14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.

16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.

18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.

21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.

25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;

28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.


For the Christian, the battle against Gog and Magog is post-Millennial and cannot correspond to events occuring today.


Revelation 20:7-8


7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Dr. Aslam Abdullah is editor-in-Chief of the Muslim Observer and the director of the Islamic Society of Nevada as well as the director of the Muslim Electorates Council of America.