The Plan All Along
By Hal Lindsey
According to conventional wisdom, just before the elections in Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu said things so egregious that the United States has been forced to rethink its position as Israel’s friend and advocate before the UN Security Council. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. The change didn’t come as a result of Netanyahu’s comments. His words made a “handy excuse,” but the change in policy was the plan all along. The following is a brief history of how we know this.
We know this from several sources. One is a man named Martin Indyk. He served as U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli–Palestinian Negotiations from 2013 to 2014. In effect, he ran the peace talks for the Obama Administration.
Indyk now serves as vice president and director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. That organization recently received $14.8 million dollars from the government of Qatar. The New York Times pointed to that transaction as a classic example of a foreign government buying influence in Washington. Qatar’s philanthropy also extends to several terror organizations, especially Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Back in February, well before the election, Indyk told the Institute for National Security Studies, “If there is a government in Israel after these elections that decides to pursue a two-state solution, then there is a way forward.” Otherwise, he said things would get ugly for Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported at the time that without a change in Israel’s government, “Indyk warned, there will be ‘international actions’ pursued not by the Palestinians, but rather by the international community ‘in terms of a Security Council resolution’ to ‘lay out and preserve the principles of a two-state solution in the future.’”
Security Council resolutions are subject to veto by any of its permanent members. That means that these things could not happen without U.S. approval. So, this ultimate Obama Administration insider — the man they chose to lead what they considered crucial peace talks — warned that the U.S. would turn on Israel if it re-elected Netanyahu.
In the understatement of the year, Indyk said such actions would likely be “against Israel’s will.”
This means that before the elections and before Netanyahu’s offending remarks (which he didn’t say anyway), the plan was already in place to withdraw support for Israel from the UN Security Council and other world bodies. Blaming the shift on Netanyahu’s manufactured comments is simply a ruse at best.
Blessing and Cursing
The current strain in relations between the United States and Israel has been well-documented. That relationship stands at the lowest point since Israel’s founding. Statements against Israel made by the President and Secretary of State have been bad enough, but the level of rancor shown by lower level White House and State Department aids has been absolutely stunning.
The problem has been characterized as a clash of personalities between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. But the real problem is Israel’s security. The president and his men seem to believe that the Palestinians will turn into good guys when certain terms have been met – terms that have been debated and rejected, since they will leave Israel undefendable.
But Netanyahu and most other Israelis have heard such pipe dreams from previous administrations of both parties, and they’re not buying it anymore. They know the history. They remember their own recent experiences with the Palestinians in Gaza and the disastrous Oslo Accords. From those giveaways, they learned that you will never win by trying to appease an insatiable foe.
The new American policy toward Israel has already begun to manifest itself. The recent declassification of U.S. documents pertaining to Israel’s top secret nuclear arms program makes a good case in point. What kind of nation tells the world its ally’s most important secrets?
On CBS’s Face the Nation, Peggy Noonan expressed the opinion of most observers when she said, “I think U.S.-Israeli relations right now are in the worst shape I have ever seen them in — the worst shape they have been in since 1948 when America was instrumental in inventing Israel.”
That’s an interesting phrase — “instrumental in inventing Israel.” It’s hard to fathom how a 239 year old nation could possibly have “invented” a nation that came into existence over three thousand years ago. Of course, she means the modern State of Israel, but it’s still not in any way an American “invention.”
Israel is God’s invention. He created it. He made certain promises to it and about it. No matter what the United States does, God Himself will take care of Israel. While the Bible tells about some terrible times in store for that small nation, it will endure.
And God will deal with nations according to their dealings with Israel. In Genesis 12:3, He said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.” [NASB]
Anyone who thinks that verse refers only to Abraham as an individual and not to the Children of Israel, should look at Numbers 24:9. There the promise is repeated as an oracle from the Lord, but this time specifically to the nation of Israel. “Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you.” [NASB]
We see the pattern hold true throughout the Old Testament. Even those nations used by God to punish Israel when it strayed, were themselves punished when they treated Israel poorly. Babylon is a perfect example.
In 1948, the United States, led by President Harry Truman, became the first nation to officially recognize Israel. He did so only eleven minutes after their Declaration of Independence became official.
Warren Austin, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, was so outraged by Truman’s decision that he left and went home. According to the Truman Library, Secretary of State Marshall had to send “a State Department official to the United Nations to prevent the entire United States delegation from resigning.” Marshall did this despite the fact that he and most of the rest of the U.S. foreign policy team had also opposed Truman on the issue.
What followed for the United States was an era of growth and prosperity unlike anything in the history of the world. From that time through 1973, the U.S. economy grew by almost 4% a year. Household income grew an astronomical 74%. Compare that to the last few years when we’ve seen household income actually fall.
When God said He would bless those who bless Israel, He meant it. In the United States, we’ve seen it with our own eyes. But if He meant one side of the equation, He meant the other side as well. He will curse those who curse Israel, just as we see happening before our eyes to the United States.
