Israel the ultimate target for Islamists engaged in ‘holy war’
by Charles Gardner
Although originally unintentional, I am planning on an official home town launch of my new book, Peace in Jerusalem, on the anniversary of 9/11.
But the timing turns out to be appropriate enough because the narrative provides the answer to the ongoing terrorist threat we all face 14 years on. I will explain that in due course.
As I have said before, the ultimate target on September 11, 2001, was not the Twin Towers, or even America as such, but Israel.
The United States have become fanatical Islam’s ‘Great Satan’ because they are perceived as the backers of the Jewish state – and, of course, they are also home to almost as many Jews as live in Israel; not to mention the fact that more Jews live in New York (two million) than in any other city on the planet, exceeding even Tel Aviv’s 1.6 million.
Now Iran – the world’s chief sponsor of terror – boasts of outwitting America en route to the destruction of Israel, which has long been its much-publicised goal. At least that is said to be the narrative of a new book by Ayatollah Khameini – Iran’s supreme leader – which apparently scorns the naivety of politicians who have fallen hook, line and sinker for a ‘deal’ said to make the world a safer place for us all. It is not available in English, by the way.
I’m led to believe that, among the conditions agreed for this ‘deal’, the Iranians are free to choose where and when inspectors can go in efforts to ensure that nuclear weapons are not being developed.1 In other words, they are being effectively trusted to police themselves, and thus call the shots.
But this is to reckon without the Islamic practice that allows for lying if it furthers the cause of Allah or jihad (holy war).2
For example, PLO founder Yasser Arafat agreed to change the organization’s charter calling for Israel’s demise in signing the Oslo Accord of 1993 – and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so! But the charter was never changed.
Similarly with Iran, duplicity and deceit are the tools of their political trade-offs. And their unabashed mantra remains the same – to “wipe Israel off the map”.
To make a pact with a bunch of raving revolutionaries and actually believe they’re going to keep their side of the bargain is foolish in the extreme.
In 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was duped into signing a ‘peace’ deal with Hitler – and we all now know that it wasn’t worth the paper on which it was written. Do Messrs Kerry and Obama think they are wiser than Mr Chamberlain?
The truth is that all of us, and the Jewish people in particular, are in at least as much danger now from the ‘new Nazism’ than we were in the lead-up to World War II.
Yet, for all this, ‘Peace in Jerusalem’ is possible and is actually a work in progress as I write – but only through Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. For I have witnessed Arab and Jew embracing one another in love because of their shared experience of Christ who has – in the words of the Apostle Paul – broken down the dividing wall of hostility between them through his sacrificial death on the cross for our sins. (Ephesians 2.14-16)
The biggest problem in our sorry world is not politics, or religion, or looming environmental disaster – but sin. I’m talking about our sin, yours and mine, expressed in the evil deeds which seem to come so naturally to us.
Behind the rage and fury of the ayatollahs is a sinful heart, full of wickedness, which will not be dealt with by appeasing politicians and bureaucrats. Only the blood that was shed by our Lord on the cross of Calvary outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago can cleanse and unite hearts.
As Jeremiah said so long ago, ‘Woe to those who prophesy peace, when there is no peace’. (Jeremiah 6.14 & 8.11)
1Various sources including Kolyah, a correspondent who wishes to keep a low profile for security reasons
2Tass Saada with Dean Merrill, Once an Arafat Man, Tyndale Publishing, page 197