Tuesday, December 19, 2006 / 28 Kislev 5767

The biblical road map

toward peace between

Israel and the Palestinians

Copyright 2000 / Jerusalem Torah Voice in Exile

1.  The map at left compared with the outline at above right, (oriented by the Dead Sea), shows the head and crown region at top right as the ancient biblical inheritance of the non-Jewish House of Joseph, the tribes of Ephraim and M'nashe and part of Benjamin. These were the two sons of Joseph, who was the eldest of Rachel and Joseph's younger brother, whose birth resulted in his mother, Rachel's death.

2.  The prophet Jeremiah wrote more than 2,700 years ago in response to Rachel's weeping for her children, long after her death that her children (the House of Joseph) would return to their biblical borders in the last days.  (Jeremiah 31:15-18).  These territories of Joseph also comprise the Birthright of Jacob.

3.  The head region (Shomron) is set apart by the God of Israel for a holy purpose; to return the non-Jewish House of Joseph to reconcile and reunite with the Jewish House of Judah, who has largely already returned.  These two houses of Israel hailed from two brothers, one jealous of the other, but who were reconciled before their deaths. However, their sons' enmities and vexations have left the scars of a split kingdom, civil war and separate exiles.  This represents "unfinished business" in the family of Jacob for the God of Israel. Else, the light "Israel" is charged with becoming to the nations and the Word guaranteeing its bright shining expose God as a hypocrite.

"In the same place where it was said of you, Lo-ami, (Not My People), you shall be called the sons of the living God." (Hosea 2:1)

That place demands a return of Joes and the non-Jewish "House of Israel."

4.  The prophet Obadiah's vision of the House of Esau in the Last Days, at the time when Jacob would be returned to his possessions, indicates those possessions -- including the Birthright of Jacob would be occupied by the "House of Esau." Obadiah, himself a descendant of Esau, has tried to connect prophetically with the Palestinians living today in Judea-Samaria, formerly known as the "West Bank" of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  Biblically and historically, these Palestinians today because of where they live -- in the Birthright land -- and their hatred of "Jacob" are "the House of Esau."  Obadiah's is a disinterested voice in whom the Palestinians must listen. Their lives depend on it. And any nation's foreign policy that supports a state for Esau in this Birthright region, merits the most serious of all biblically ordained curses:  

God of Israel to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, but those who curse you I will cause to be cursed and in your seed all families of the earth shall be nivrecu (grafted or intermingled according Chizkuni, Daas Zekeinim, Rashbam and Tur)."

NOTE:  Esau's historic hatred of Jacob is explained by the concept of incompatible "leumim" discussed below. Esau is a different "leum" (a people with the same or a compatible interest and mindset) than his brother, Jacob to whom this promise of blessing by God applies.

5.  Obadiah's vision urges the disengagement of the entire House of Esau from these territories of Joseph and concludes that those who remained would be annihilated.

"The House of Jacob shall be a fire, and the House of Joseph the flame and the House of Esau for stubble and I will kindle in them and devour them and not one shall remain from the House of Esau." (Obadiah 17ff)

THE STATUS QUO:

6.  A two-state solution was alluded to by the biblical prophet, Zechariah, some 2,600 years ago, according to our exegesis, which examines the content of the prophecy in its context. The context includes both the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the worldwide spiritual move to unite and reconcile the House of Joseph with the House of Judah and return at least a remnant of the House of Joseph to its territories.

This contiguous Palestinian state (outlined in red in the maps above and below) is the domain of a fearful and sorrowful people whose "expectation" (connected to Lebanon and Syria) was ashamed. Zechariah referred to this people as P'lishtim, as the Palestinians also were called in the Arabic used by Yasser Arafat.  Zechariah observed their dwellings in the contiguous region of the Gaza, Ashdod, Ashqelon and Ekron. He also called their leader an "aluf" (chief or master) in Judah. But the state Zechariah described was "conditional." Further, it would be orchestrated solely by the God of Israel.

God would first cause the "cutting off" of the "pride of the P'lishtim." Cutting off the "pride" of an entire people, would to our thinking minds, suggest a mother of a war or a depression or some calamitous event. In the individual, the defense of ego is central and basic, even primal.  Nationalism has bred the same defense shrouded in such things as patriotism. But the national ego can also get out of control. Let's call this "ultra-Nationalism" that defines the passionate "free will" of the people. But when the free national will contradicts THE Will, regarding Judea-Samaria and the reconciliation of Joes and Jews, for instance, the passion in that opposing will must be quelled.

From this people, Zechariah saw that God would:

1) Take away the blood out of his mouth.

2) Take away the abominations from between his teeth.

In the context of current events and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the blood removed could figuratively relate to the ongoing terrorist attacks, which would cease.  The abominations coming from between his teeth could be interpreted as the Palestine National Charter calling for the removal of the Zionist state and the death of Israelis.  Despite much political rhetoric and maneuvering and promises to amend the charter, those terms remain.

As an aluf in Judah, the Palestinian state envisioned by Zechariah, may not be totally autonomous and would remain part of Israel, just as all states of the United States remain part of the U.S. 

8.  The "Zechariah Plan," would involve the transfer or "disengagement" of Palestinians from Judea-Samaria to new homes, pastures and orchard lands in a contiguous region generally known in the Bible as "the plain of the Philistines."  The Israelite tribe of Dan, which was given this region as its inheritance, failed to conquer its enemies and was eventually relocated to the North in the region of the Golan Heights. Victory in those early battles was tied to Walking the Walk. Obviously the tribe of Dan didn't.  The Philistines, progenitor of the Palestinians in etymology and geography, but not necessarily geneaology, thrived.  At least until Israel Walks its Walk, the Palestinians have biblical precedent to the plain of the Philistines AND to be as thorns and bees as servants of "Allah." (explained below)

The Plain is loosely defined by the  fertile Sh'felah region contiguous with the Gaza and coastal cities to the north including Ashqelon and Ashdod.  The plan also involves further "disengagements" of the Jewish populations in the contiguous area comprising Ashdod, Ashqelon and Ekron.

9. The contiguity is necessary to separate the two nations into two contiguous states and two "leumim." This was prophesied of the two families, Jacob and Esau, to their mother, Rebecca, when the two unborn boys "agitated" in her womb.  The two would be unable to co-exist and one would be in ascendancy over the other ... for life. Thus, each "leum" represents a people whose ideology and mindset differs ... and conflicts. This mandates separate and contiguous states for each.

10. The northern two-thirds of Judea-Samaria (the head and crown region in the outline) vacated by the Palestinians would revert to new immigrants who are neither Jewish nor Palestinian.  They are "the House of Joseph." Biblically and historically, these include Ephraim and M'nashe and part of Benjamin.

According to the Bible, the greatest concentration of Ephraim dwells in the coastal regions of the Earth including the coastal Americas.  The greatest concentration of M'nashe is split into two regions.

I.  The people identified along ancient southern Chinese trade routes in India, Burma, Thailand and other areas of Southeast Asia.  These refugees provide an immediate source of population to inhabit the Shomron as they are homeless and starving.  Rabbi  Eliyahu            in his book "Ha-Shevitim" (The Tribes) identifies  these "Shinlung" refugees as part of M'nashe.

 

II. Native Americans through the Israelite family of Laman ben Lehi ben M'nashe ben Yoseif.  The latter, documented in the diary of Nephi  on the plates from which the Book of Mormon originated, include descendants of the Hopi. Returning Hopi clans to the American Southwest include the long stranded hordes of Chicano (Red People) immigrants from Mexico and South and Central America.

 This means the House of Joseph is shaping up to be a "refugee population" displaced largely by coming Earth changes that will affect coastal regions and "short-sighted" immigration policies in the U.S.

It also means that the Joes worldwide are more than sufficient to dilute the Palestinian majority population in the Shomron so that Israel may proceed with annexation of the region without legitimizing the politics of Palestinian ultra-Nationalism.

And for the Israeli political party who solicits and invites the Joes to fulfill the vision of Zion, as a reunion of Joes and Jews, there is a ready-made political constituency of more than 2.5 million, with millions more eventually spilling over into Lebanon and the Gilead  (Zechariah 10:10ff).

Maggid ben Yoseif