Monday, April 07, 2014

For the U.S., Jerusalem Has No Connection with Israel


For the U.S., Jerusalem Has No Connection with Israel

By Julio Severo
A recent Jerusalem Post article notes, “Since the founding of Israel, U.S. presidents have declined to state a position on the status of Jerusalem.” For the U.S. government and its leftist Christian presidents, Jerusalem has no country. Yet, why are even U.S. conservative presidents included in this negative picture?            
For God’s Word, those born in Jerusalem are always born in Israel. But why does the United States, a nation founded on Christian principles and capable of providing great leadership to the world, choose to ignore Israel’s special place in God’s eye?
As a Brazilian, I would expect the U.S. to set a good example, because many of the U.S. presidents have been Christians and some of them have stated they are friends of Israel.
If God used powerful rulers in the ancient world who did not know Him, what about powerful U.S. Christian presidents who claim to know God? God said about Persian emperor Cyrus (c. 585 B.C. — c. 529 B.C.) in the past:
“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: ‘I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.’” (Isaiah 45:1-4 ESV)
Why are U.S. Christian presidents doing less than Cyrus? What hinders them from doing as much or more than a pagan Persian emperor?
American culture has been massively imitated around the world.  If America led the way in serving Israel, other nations would certainly follow suit. In fact, if God’s Word is correct, it is strongly in America’s interest to set an example of service to Israel:
“For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.” (Isaiah 60:12 ESV)
Ancient empires served Israel.  Why should it be different with America, whose Pilgrim Founders wanted Hebrew to be the official language of the new American nation? America, which is a modern empire, and Brazil, which is a nation, exist not to be served by Israel, but to serve Israel.
America is a strange ally of Israel.  She is a nation that does not want to serve Israel. She is a nation that does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. She gives Israel limited military assistance, and at the same time she heavily arms and supports Saudi Arabia and other Islamic dictatorships that would not hesitate to destroy the Jews and their Promised Land.
How can America be an ally of Israel and its enemies? How can an ally work against the security interests of its friend? Last year, the world was shocked to learn that NSA spies on people in every nation, even Israel. No American has been imprisoned for such massive, unnecessary spying, allegedly to monitor Muslim terrorists — when current CIA director John Brennan is, according to WND.com, an American converted to Islam in Saudi Arabia.
While NSA goes unpunished for spying for suspicious political and financial interests, Jonathan Pollard has spent 27 years of an unprecedented life sentence in a U.S. federal prison for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. The typical sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years. No one else in the history of the United States has ever received a life sentence for this offense.
Can you imagine a Saudi spy receiving a life sentence in the U.S.? But Pollard, who passed security information about Muslim nations to Israel, was just fulfilling a role that America herself was called to do: serve Israel and its security interests.
Increasingly, America has served the interests of Muslim dictatorships, especially Saudi Arabia. In fact, America now has a Marxist, pro-abortion, pro-sodomy president with a Muslim name.  Barack Hussein Obama is a mere reflection of America’s tilt toward Saudi Arabia and the other Muslim dictatorships.
How has America been rewarded for her service to the Muslim world?  September 11, 2001.  Even though most of the Muslim terrorists were Saudis, America did not invade Saudi Arabia.
Of course, the U.S. has an early Christian tradition and a significant evangelical population that would not hesitate to lead America to serve Israel. But they are in conflict with a modern haughty America that serves her own political and financial ambitions, which prefers just to use Israel for her interests.
Even good conservative U.S. presidents, as George W. Bush, had a foreign policy that, although not so radical as Clinton and other leftist American presidents, still refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and even pushed Israel to recognize Palestinian occupation of the Promised Land.
Bush’s State Secretary, Condoleezza Rice, was the main responsible for the Bush policies toward Israel. Considering that she was a daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian ministers, could replacement theology have influenced her policies? Replacement theology, accepted by many Presbyterians, teaches that God is finished with the Jews and their Promised Land. Also, as a “conservative” and evangelical, Rice sees herself as reluctantly or mildly pro-abortion and pro-gay “marriage,” and in a 2008 visit to Brazil, she was supportive of African witchcraft. With such “conservatives,” who need liberals? With such “conservatives,” how can America serve Israel?
If she had the political will, America could easily recognize all of the Promised Land as a Jewish state.  She has the political and military power to enforce such will, and no nation can resist her power and decisions.
Also, it is a very small thing for a powerful nation like the U.S., now the only superpower in the world, to consider people who are born in Jerusalem as having been born in Israel.
But the small thing is a very thorny issue for the superpower and its Christian presidents. By U.S. law, people who were born in Jerusalem cannot list Israel as their birthplace. That is, they have a birth city, but not birth country.
As a Brazilian, I would expect such behavior from many nations, including Brazil, which now has a socialist president who has no real respect for Israel. Sadly, even before socialism took control of the Brazilian government, Brazilian presidents had never officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
A superficial Christianity makes an individual and a nation fail to take seriously what God says in His Word about Israel and Jerusalem.
Still, I would expect much more from the U.S., especially its more conservative Christian presidents throughout its history. I would expect from them respect for the real Ruler in the world and His eternal will for Jerusalem and Israel.
In fact, His Word promises blessings to nations that bless Israel. Brazil has no interest in such blessings. But why has America, with her many Christian presidents, never had courage to tackle this small thing and receive a huge blessing?
Why do U.S. Christian presidents refuse to recognize what God recognizes?
It’s one thing for less Christian nations or Muslim countries to say that Jerusalem has no connection with Israel. It is normal, for example, for Saudi Arabia and other pagan nations to reject the legitimate Jewish connections of Jerusalem.  It’s a completely different thing for America, with her strong Christian tradition and Protestant presidents, to say the same thing as their pagan counterparts do.
Where are the real American Christians who will do what God wants for Jerusalem and Israel? At least, where is a pagan Cyrus to do what “Christian” rulers in America are not doing?
May God raise someone reading these words to be president, whether of Brazil or the U.S., and return Jerusalem to its rightful owner: Israel.
If Brazil does it under a Christian president, powerful blessings certainly will follow, even a position of superpower, because God, who overthrows big nations refusing His will, also is powerful to raise other nations to do His will, especially to help Israel.
May Jerusalem, which God established as the eternal capital of Israel, be recognized for what it is.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!” (Psalms 122:6 ESV)
“The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.” (Psalms 147:2 ESV)
What hinders America and her conservative Christian presidents from recognizing Jerusalem, serve Israel and be blessed?
I wonder if the issue were recognizing Mecca as capital of Saudi Arabia, would it have been left unsolved as Jerusalem has been? No, it would have been solved many decades ago, even if its Jewish neighbor had opposed it.
I bet that Saudi Arabia, the big Muslim ally of the U.S., does not want Jerusalem recognized as the capital of Israel.
Why does America find easier to serve Saudi Arabia than Israel?
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