Every one who knows the problems of territory, religion, education, and simple racial hate and international involvement, knows that the greatest problem of all is related to the Bible. Jews have for the two thousand years of exile among the nations dreamed of returning to the land of their forefathers, the land of Israel, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

People who believe that the Bible is the Word of God give this ancient document the authority of an international contract between God and mankind. The Bible is for those who believe it a living Word that not only tells the story of past ancient history, but also predicts the future and makes a road map for the rest of man s days on this Earth. Those who believe that the promises of the Bible are to be understood literally are called, Fundamentalist.

What is in the Bible that relates to the Land of Israel and causes Jews and those who believe the Bible as Fundamentalist to reject any compromise with the Arabs on the Land of promise?  Here are some Biblical facts on this issue:

1.God s promise to give the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seeds forever is repeated more times in the Bible than any other promise. In Genesis alone it is repeated close to twenty times.

2.The promise of God to give the Land of Israel (Canaan) to Israel is given to every one of the patriarchs, to Moses, to Joshua, and to the prophets of Israel.

3.Israel is the only nation that has been exiled for more than one hundred years that has returned home to the land of their forefathers. In fact Israel has returned to the land already three times. Our forefathers returned from Egypt to the Land of God s promise with Moses and Joshua.

After 70 years of exile in Babylon Ezra and Nehamiah returned with a large number of the Exiles back to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. Modern Zionism is a third time that
God s promises of return to the Land and inheritance of His promises. We are actually living witnesses of this return and rebuilding and restoration of this land and all this is happening before our own eyes and the eyes of the whole world.

I believe that, although, the Biblical promises made by God seem unrealistic right now, they are the most realistic and since God has the power to change people and nations, we who believe Him and believe His Word, must hold on to God s promises and never stop hoping that He will keep His Word in the future as He has kept it in the past.  Who would have believed 150 years ago that there is going to be a Jewish State in the land of Israel and that it will have an army and Jewish farmers, and win wars against the whole and joint force of the Arab countries.

These promises of God to Israel bring a special rational to the people who believe that the Bible is God s Living Word and want to live according to what the Bible teaches. People stand on God’s Word and say to themselves the following:

How can we give this land that is promised to us by the Creator of the World as an inheritance forever to the Muslim/Arabs who have always opposed God and His Word. We read that the Arabs opposed the return of the Exiles from Babylon in the days of Nehemiah also just as they do today: "Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. 8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it." (Nehemiah 4:7-8)

Our God is able and His Word is living and every one of His promises will be fulfilled. Our hope is in God and in His promises, and even if we at times misunderstand God s Word and misinterpret his promises, we know that not one word from God will fall empty.  What to us seems virtual and unreal for God is real and already accomplished.

By Joseph Shulam