Dividing the Land of Israel: Blessing or Curse?

Dividing the Land of Israel: Blessing or Curse?
by: Gary Fisher

In listening to the news today, no one can escape hearing about the negotiations for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, more commonly known as the "peace process". That these peace discussions are going on is nothing new, but for the last twelve years, those discussions have taken on a very dangerous twist!
I recently discovered a fascinating Scripture that reveals this danger. It is found in Joel 3:2 which says, "I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land". This prophecy written around 800 B.C., ultimately promises God's retaliation against those who have taken the Jewish people from their land, or divided His land, the land He promised to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, in the last days.
What was so fascinating in discovering this verse is the fact that not only will God execute His wrath on those nations that divide His land in the future, but to discover that God has been active in history dealing with the nations over this issue. Below is a list of nations that have scattered the Jewish people or divided the land of Israel, or both.
History of Nations Occupying
	1.)	Babylon 			606-536 BC.
	2.)	Persia 			536-333 BC. 
	3.)	Greece			333-63 BC.
	4.)	Rome			63-312 AD.
	5.)	Byzantine		312-637 AD.
	6.)	Moslem			637-1099 AD.
	7.)	Crusaders		1099-1291 AD.
	8.)	Mamelukes		1291-1517 AD.
	9.)	Ottoman Turks 		1517-1917 AD.
	10.)	Britain			1917-1948 AD.
Note: Germany could be listed here as well although they did not occupy Israel.
Each one of these nations committed the same mistake, persecuted the Jewish people of Israel, or divided the land, or both. Each one has suffered similar fate accordingly, either been completely defeated, or greatly reduced in prominence.
Currently, the USA has taken the lead among the nations in forcing Israel to give up land for peace. This policy basically started in the U.S. in 1991 when the U.S. State Department drafted the Madrid peace conference, a conference designed to force Israel to give up land for peace.
The conference was to begin on October 30, 1991. That same day, the largest storm of Atlantic history, formed in one day off the coast of Nova Scotia and started moving westward. (The pattern for weather for the United States is usually from west to east). Recorded by meteorologists as one of the most powerful storms ever, it came ashore on the east coast on October 31, 2001. It damaged the entire east coast as it slammed 30 foot waves into then President George Bush's home in Kennebunkport, Maine. As writer John McTernan put it in his book Israel, Blessing or the Curse, "on October 31, 1991, America was put on notice by the Lord God of Israel".
The Madrid peace conference was to resume on August 23, 1992, again pressuring Israel to surrender land in exchange for peace. The same day, Hurricane Andrew slammed into southern Florida, the worst natural disaster to ever to hit the United States.
These type occurrences continued through the Clinton Administration and have resumed in the new Bush Administration. George Bush Jr. pledged to stay out of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but shortly into his administration, he changed his mind.
In June of 2001, he sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel to attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan, a plan calling for among other things, cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements. On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President's home state, and dropped over twenty-eight inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists claimed Allison as the "worst tropical storm in history".
God continues to send warning after warning as we as a country insist that Israel give up land that God promised to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob and to his descendents. The responsibility of such action rests on our own shoulders because God has warned in His Word, in Joel 3:2, for the nations to keep their hands off of His covenant land and has demonstrated in history that He is serious about that warning.
George W. Bush is a good man and many in his cabinet that are involved in the "Peace Process" are unaware that insisting that Israel give up their land is an offense to God. Some of the other world leaders are just as unaware. However, unaware or not, if these are the times that God's prophets have predicted, that in the end time God will restore the land of Israel and the people of Israel back to that land, then God with the intention of restoring the land and the Jewish people back to it, will tolerate no plan by man or country to divide or give His land away!