Home » June 1995

Zola Levitt

Israel’s 47th Independence Day was less than a week ago but it appears the meaning of independence has escaped some government ministers — apparently even the prime minister himself. Some last-minute lobbying by an unnamed official traveling with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s entourage against today’s congressional initiative to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem is not merely embarrassing, but reminiscent of the traditional behavior of Diaspora Jews in times of trouble.

The “don’t make waves” approach to life may have been suitable for a persecuted minority living in hostile surroundings. The establishment of the State of Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital, was intended to consign this philosophy of Jewish life to the dustbin of history. In the nearly half-century of its existence, Israel has indeed changed the image — and self-image — of the Jewish people, immeasurably and for the better.

Most countries with whom Israel has diplomatic relations may have chosen to dispute the fact that Jerusalem is legitimately the country’s capital but this slight is not one Israelis should choose to ignore. This is not a pariah state, nor does it depend on the whims of others for its survival. As the only democracy in the Middle East, it deserves the respect that other countries, including some of the worst tyrannical dictatorships, take for granted. It is the right of any sovereign state to choose its own capital.

US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk has said moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would explode the peace process and Secretary of State Warren Christopher added over the weekend that such a move would interfere with it. It is difficult to see how. If the Palestinians and Syrians are sincere about making peace with Israel — and there are still serious questions about their final intentions — the siting of the US Embassy in the western part of Jerusalem should not raise an eyebrow in Gaza or Damascus.

Rabin correctly pointed out that world recognition of Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem is the government’s main goal. It is curious that he does not accept that moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem can only strengthen this aim. Once the powerful US moves its embassy, other countries are sure to follow suit, leading to a strong diplomatic presence in Israel’s capital that would bolster the city’s status.

Even more puzzling is the suggestion that moving the US Embassy is a Likud ploy to sabotage the peace process. For decades, Israeli officials and pro-Israeli lobbyists in Washington of all political stripes have been pushing for recognition of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital. To suggest suddenly that a congressional initiative, which apparently has the support of 93 senators, is the work of partisan Israeli politicians or their American supporters smacks more of paranoia than reason.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, the sponsor of the initiative, and Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye who has announced he will cosponsor Dole’s move, must find it bewildering that the leader of a proud, independent nation should be so suspicious of their efforts on Israel’s behalf. They probably also fail to understand how important ministers like Avraham Shohat and Yossi Sarid can claim, as they did after Sunday’s cabinet meeting, that the siting of the American embassy in Israel is clearly an internal American matter as Sarid put it or, as Shulamit Aloni remarked, provocative.

The words of the psalmist If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, which resonate so strongly over the ages, ironically now seem forgotten at a time when Israel’s economic, diplomatic and military standing is stronger than ever before.

The issue of Israel’s capital is an Israeli issue, and only an Israeli issue. It is in Israel’s interests, not America’s, that the US Embassy be situated in Jerusalem. One would expect the country’s leaders to understand this and to strengthen, rather than disparage, the standing of their capital.

Important decisions about Israel are made in the court of world public opinion. As in any court, the rule of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) applies. In other words a decision is only as good as the facts upon which it is based. Decisions based upon lies are unjust.

The PLO has long understood that public opinion moves politicians, and that political decisions determine whether or not they will succeed in forming a state — which will (they hope) eventually replace all of Israel.

For years all over the world the PLO has been playing to public opinion. Unfortunately much of what they offer is untrue — like the old saw: This land was not a barren desert which was made to bloom, but a land with people in it over the centuries. Their success in forming public opinion was demonstrated recently when this canard was repeated by a Roman Catholic priest in a conference at the Tel Aviv University Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research.

The statement above leaves important questions unanswered. The truth of the last half of the sentence seems to validate the first half, but in fact it does not. We all know there were people in the land, but were there millions of people or just a few? Did they work the land and care for it, or did they allow it to lie fallow? The fact that people lived here over the centuries says nothing about whether the land was barren or not.

It is not surprising that well-meaning people (including most Palestinians) accept that the land was not barren. After all none of them were alive in the mid-19th century when the restoration of the land began. And faced with a campaign to obscure the facts, few among us are interested enough to search for the truth. Therefore what most people believe is what they hear said most often. And the PLO makes certain that we hear their version over and over.

The returning children of Israel began to restore the land (draining swamps, and planting trees and crops) in the mid-19th century — long before Israel became a state. Now, more than a century later, how can we prove that the land was desolate? The Bible says that a matter is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Many people visited the Holy Land in the 19th century and wrote about their experiences. What did these eyewitnesses say? Was this a barren land or not?

In 1835 Alphonse de Lamartine wrote,

Outside the gates of Jerusalem we saw indeed no living object, heard no living sound, we found the same void, the same silence … as we should have expected before the entombed gates of Pompeii or Herculaneam … a complete eternal silence reigns in the town, on the highways, in the country … the tomb of a whole people.

Mark Twain, who visited Palestine in 1867, wrote what he saw as he traveled the length of the country,

Desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds — a silent mournful expanse … A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action. We reached Tabor safely … We never saw a human being on the whole route.

There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.

Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies. Palestine is desolate and unlovely… Palestine is no more of this workday world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition, it is dreamland. (As quoted by Samuel Katz in Battleground)

Since no one is living today who saw the land before Jewish people began to reclaim it, what evidence is offered by those who say the land was not desolate?

No evidence is put forth. The statement is made and repeated apparently hoping that those listening have not read the reports of eyewitnesses like Alphonse de Lamartine, Mark Twain, Constantine François Volney, Alexander Keith, and W. M. Thompson, who testify that the land was desolate. According to the most reliable estimates, the population when Jewish restoration of the land began (1872–1882) consisted of 141,000 settled Moslems, 65,000 Bedouin-nomadic Moslems and 55,000 Christians (see From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters). The population then was less than 5% of the population of the land today.

To understand what this means, imagine that more than 95% of today’s population disappeared. Is it reasonable to assume that a tiny percentage of today’s population with primitive hand tools could cultivate all the land?

Of course not. History shows that the gradual return of the children of Israel caused the barren land to bloom and the resulting prosperity drew Arabs into Palestine from the surrounding countries.

In large part the media will determine whether justice or injustice prevails by whether or not they give the public the facts.

Dear Friends,

As is usual with our trips to Israel, I learned a great deal about the ongoing situation there, and I’m in a position to offer corrections to the CNN and other network reports. As always, peace has broken out in over 99.9% of the country, but all the reporters and cameramen are in the other 0.1%.

Former Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, who has appeared on our program, was talking about Mohammed’s ride to heaven from Jerusalem as believed by the Moslems. The former mayor pointedly advised us that there is no direct flight from Mecca to heaven. You have to go through Jerusalem! As I have pointed out previously, the Koran does not specify Jerusalem and I am sorry the Moslems of the past felt free to choose it for Mohammed’s ride. They might have picked Cairo, Damascus, or even New York if they wished, but they correctly envisioned that Israel would be the hardest country to lay claim to. Now that they have invented the yarn about the prophet’s pilgrimage, the bogus claim seems to be working out.

On a previous program, Dr. Walid Phares, a Phoenician from Lebanon, demonstrated a seventh century map which showed that Moslems occupied merely a small province in Saudi Arabia. They have since taken virtually every country of the Middle East and we are watching them take Israel today. The objectionable part is what happens to those societies after the take-overs. There are presently three kinds of Moslem countries in this world: family businesses (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.); forced-ballot dictatorships (Syria, Egypt, etc.); and lunatic worship (Iran, Iraq, Libya, etc.).

The latest and most awesome attempt of forced conversion of a Middle-Easterner into the Muslim faith is Jesus of Nazareth. I thought He was Jewish and I read His genealogy in the Gospels, but Arafat says He was a Palestinian freedom fighter and PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi claims He was a Palestinian prophet born in Bethlehem in my country. We may see in time that Moslems entirely expropriate Jesus Christ to be one of their own, as they have with Abraham and the other patriarchs. Doesn’t the majority of this world believe that Jesus is a Gentile? That was an extremely successful conversion also.

Our TV crew accompanied us to Israel and we were able to capture some fine footage for our new series The First Christians. There are so many things in the Holy Land which haven’t changed in 2,000 years and I will be delighted to show them to you. We will even present some ancient music to accompany this very special video. Please consider giving us some support at this time. We are in the costly post-production phase. Thanks.

With all that is going on, there is no better time than the present to visit Israel. On a recent evaluation, we asked our Spring 1995 tour passengers if they would recommend our tour to a friend. One lady responded, Absolutely. I waited for 40 years to go to Israel. I’ve been teaching about prophecy and Israel for 28 years. I had to borrow from my pension to go now but it was worth every penny. I wanted to see God’s land and the land that he has given to the Jews (God’s people) before the Lord comes back. I’ll fight for the Jewish nation any way I can. Our next tour is this October, including our Greek island cruise. Come see for yourself the work the Lord is doing in the Holy Land. Call Cynthia at 214-690-1876 or our answering service at 1-800-WONDERS for a free, full-color brochure.

Your messenger,

Note: The Jesus Seminar is a group of scholars who gather periodically to debate the historical accuracy of the Gospels. They have ruled that Jesus didn’t say most of the words recorded as His in the New Testament; they claim these were added later by the writers of the Bible.

Dear Brother Levitt,

I was reading in my wife’s copy of your May newsletter and couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that there are pastors who actually speak against the invitation to a Passover dinner.

We are a non-denominational Pentecostal Church who simply love the feast of Passover. This past April during Holy Week, we held our second Seder dinner. We have always invited a minister from a local Messianic Ministry to be sure that we maintain the Jewish roots. This past Seder was simply something we shall never forget. We were blessed to be led by a former Rabbi, now a Christian Jew, (in my eyes he is still a Rabbi) and ministering for Jesus.

Brother Levitt, every Christian Church should avail themselves of this blessing. The anointing upon the whole evening (3 hours long) and to know we were doing just what Jesus did was a thrill beyond words. Our theme for the Seder was, Jesus in the Passover. Our people loved it. Because it was a meal we had to limit ourselves to eighty-eight people. Our gym couldn’t hold any more tables. In fact, we turned people away.

I look forward to next year and having Rabbi M. R. back with us. I just wanted to share this with you and let you know we love you and God’s people.

Rev. C.K.

Dear Zola,

[Regarding the pastor who disagreed with Christians attending a Passover Seder] I think the pastor was exactly right. I respect the Jewish traditions for they point to Christ. But you are causing division in the Body and creating strife. You elevate yourself by the flesh, not the Spirit who would do no such thing. It was also accusatory like Satan.

P.C.

Dear Mr. Levitt,

In response to your letter, I would like you to know that I have not lost interest in your newsletter and yes I still want to hear from you. Please keep me on your mailing list.

I especially appreciate the fine quality of your TV production. Keep up the good work.

Ken Berg, Berg Productions

Dear Zola,

I have made a list of the ministries I want to help. This month is your turn. I have written you several times telling you how much I enjoy your programs. I tape all of them. I share your books with people from time to time. I watch very little TV because I’d rather spend my time reading, listening to tapes or writing. Your program is my main interest. I’m always telling people I don’t turn my TV on much except to watch Zola. They say who is Zola? Then I tell them.

Incidentally, the ministries I support are mainly Jewish ministries the books I read, the tapes I listen to and most of what I write about is Jewish centered. That is my obsession. I want to use this information some way as a ministry. So far, I feel I need to write. To what end I’m not sure. Well, Zola, stay healthy we need you.

Your programs are so informative and well-done. May you do many more!

J.C.

P.S. Did I hear you at one time tell about some woman who started to write about the Palestinian history in Israel only to do research and find that they had not been there very many years? If so, who was that and is there information on that? Also, I’ve enjoyed your Levitt Letter and Tom McCall’s history of the land. I wish he’d tell something about the condition of Israel before 1948.

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The Abrahamic Covenant

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Israel and The Law of God.

From the Exodus to the Cross, the Law served as God’s standard for man’s salvation.

Prophecy — Thus Saith the Lord.

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The Messiah — Why Jesus of Nazareth?

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Grace — The Gift of Absolute Forgiveness.

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