ISRAEL - Thousands of New Homes Planned
Israel’s far-right government approved plans to build thousands of new homes in the occupied West Bank—a move that threatened to worsen increasingly strained relations with the United States.
The decision defied growing U.S. criticism of Israel’s settlement policies in occupied lands. It also raised tensions with the Palestinians at a time of rising violence in the occupied territory.
Multiple Israeli media outlets said the Defense Ministry planning committee that oversees settlement construction approved over 5,000 new settlement homes. The units are at various stages of planning, and it was not immediately clear when construction would begin. The ministry did not immediately comment.
The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate and obstacles to peace. Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem—territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.
-www.nbcnews.com, 27 June 2023
Arno's Commentary
Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. They are super successful when it comes to high tech, agriculture, water preservation, and quite obviously have the best military in the world.
While we cannot deny that Arab Palestinians do experience disadvantages from Israel’s presence, we must insist that Israel does have a legal right to settle territories they have won by military force. It is the standard throughout the world that the winner dictates the laws, and the loser becomes subject to the winner. For example, the Republic of Austria lost roughly 60% of its territory after World War 1. Following the Treaty of Versailles, Hungary lost two-thirds of their territory, and 3.3 million Hungarians became citizens of other countries.
Above and beyond any geopolitical disagreement, we must point to the Bible, where an unconditional promise of God to Abraham defines the borders of the Promised Land: “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
