________________

FROM: ANTIPAS MINISTRIES (S.R. SHEARER)

DATE: November 2, 2000

SUBJECT: A LARGER QUESTION BEYOND THE WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS

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RELIGION IN POLITICS
[www.isrp.org]

November 4, 2000

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
                                                            -   George Orwell

[Information for much of this report was derived from articles by Joseph
Churba, David Shipler, Charles Krauthammer, and Jay Shapiro of Arutz Sheva
Israel National Radio; finally, we want to thank Sean Mayfield for his
invaluable research.]

THE REAL ENEMY OF ISRAEL:
IT'S NOT WHO YOU THINK!

by:
S.R. Shearer

PART 1

[This is the first in a series of articles dealing with the fighting in the
Middle East; this particular article - Part I - deals with the question of
who the REAL enemy of Israel is in the Middle East, and it is not the
Palestinians, as you will see.  Part II will deal with the Scriptural basis
of what's happening there today.  These two parts will then form the basis
for all the articles that will follow.  We urge you, therefore, to study
this article and the one to follow carefully.  If you don't, you will most
assuredly lose your way in the articles that follow them.]


"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about, ...  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for
all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces,
though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."
(Zech. 12:2-3)

INTRODUCTION

What's occurring today in the Middle East is the climax of an "End Game"
that has been going on since 1948.  It signals the end of a long,
2,000-year period of time in which the Church has had history to itself;
re-inserts Israel as a "player" on the world's stage; and introduces a
coming age (i.e., the Millennium and eventually, even Eternity) in which
both Israel and the Church (as separate, distinct, and independent
entities) are destined to hold the stage together.  This "End Game" is now
reaching its climax in the fighting over Jerusalem.

David Shipler of the New York Times gives a brief overview of how this "End
Game" is proceeding and how intractable the facts on the ground are between
the two antagonists that are presently involved.  He writes:

"The Israelis and Palestinians are now being pulled violently toward the
black hole of their conflict.  They have been there before - a place so
dense in passion that it emits no light by which they can truly see the
other's legitimacy as a people.  If they get there again, they will be back
at the core of the battle.  This has always been a clash of two
nationalisms trying to defy the law of physics by occupying the same space
at the same time.  The problem was visible a few weeks after the 1993 Oslo
accords that launched the peace process when nine Palestinian teenagers
gathered in a West Bank classroom to reconsider their attitudes toward
Israeli Jews.  Born and raised in the caldron of Israeli occupation, they
now faced a confusing moment of hopeful skepticism.  Seeing into the
negative stereotypes were new, admiring images.  Israeli Jews were violent,
but educated, the students said, controlling but industrious, morally
corrupt but more protective than Arabs of women's rights.

"On one point, however, the ambivalence evaporated.  The Jews, said a high
school senior named Fahed, had faked their ancient history in Jerusalem and
surroundings.  'They created the ruins (i.e., the Temple Mount, Joseph's
Tomb, etc.) to prove that it was their land', he declared.  The Jews don't
belong here, a girl added.  Did that mean the Jews should leave, they were
asked.  The answer came in a chorus: 'No!'  'Israelis don't have any other
place to go', another girl conceded.

"This revealed the adult blend of realism and fantasy that still drives the
struggle.  Conceding that the Israelis are there to stay does not overcome
the power of denying their historical right to do so.  Yasser Arafat,
chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and Hosni Mubarak, president of
Egypt, have reportedly made private remarks dismissing Jews' ties to the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Temple stood until destroyed by the
Romans in A.D. 70.  The denial touches the deepest Israeli fear, that no
peace agreement will render them authentic inhabitants in the eyes of
Arabs."

JERUSALEM - A CUP OF TREMBLING

Shipler's analysis above gives an idea of how tempestuous and "fouled up"
perceptions are as to what's occurring in the Holy Land.  While "peaceniks"
on both sides - "moderate Jews" and "moderate Muslims" (like the three
"moderate" Muslim students Shipler cites above) - are appalled at all the
blood that has been shed in recent days over the question of Jerusalem,
their perceptions as to which group has a legitimate right to the Holy
Land, and most particularly Jerusalem, are written in stone.  And it is
precisely this inflexibility that is inexorably leading both sides (and the
other nations of the region - and, indeed, the world) down the path towards
war, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah,

"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about, ... And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for ALL
people ..."  (Zech. 12:2a-3a)

I WILL NOT BE FLEXIBLE

As hard as it is for most American evangelicals to grasp, the fact of the
matter is, Arafat and Mubarak actually believe that the Israelis have
"created history" in order to legitimize their presence in the Holy Land!
They (i.e., Arafat and Mubarak) really believe that the history surrounding
the Temple Mount is a figment of the Jews' imagination! - and, of course,
if they think that, then where is there any possibility for a compromise?
There is none!  The Jews are interlopers; they have no historical claim to
the Holy Land, and that's the end of it!

There is no Temple Mount!  There is only the "Dome of the Rock," and
"Al-Aqsa."  That's all.  Nothing more! And it is precisely for this reason
that at Camp David in July, Arafat balked at any solution for Jerusalem
that denied him FULL SOVEREIGNTY over the Temple Mount and all of eastern
Jerusalem, saying that otherwise he feared a Muslim assassin's bullet.  The
PLO chief warned,

"... there will be no peace and no stability in the Middle East region if
[Jerusalem] does not return to its legitimate owners."

Then, as if to make sure his hearers understood what he meant, Arafat
continued,

"I will NOT be flexible concerning the holy places.  They are Palestinian,
Arab ... and Muslim holy places, and everyone must respect it."

Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet secretary Abed el-Rahman expanded on
what Arafat had just said,

"If the thieving Israelis continue holding on to our lands, another
intifada awaits them - and worse things as well."

Arafat ended the week (the 15th of October, 2000) on the same abrasive
note, telling CNN:

"You have to remember, you are speaking to Yasser Arafat. I will continue
to liberate all the Islamic and Muslim holy places. I can't betray my
people. I can't betray the Arabs ... I can't betray the Muslims."

Mubarak echoes Arafat's fear.  He too is afraid of what could happen to him
if he were to yield to Israel on the question of Jerusalem, believing that
if he becomes a party to a compromise, he will invite on himself the
endless wrath of Muslim extremists and possibly murder at the hands of his
own people.

Ultimately, what Arafat wants is to declare a state by raising the
Palestinian flag over a "liberated" Temple Mount.  What he and Mubarak are
willing to settle for in the interim - and what Arafat actually suggested
to Clinton - is that the Temple Mount be transferred to "Islamic
sovereignty," entrusted to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, but with
Palestinian administrative control.  It was an option Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak quickly ruled out.

TECHNICALITIES VERSES REALITIES

Technically, the Oslo Accords are supposed to guarantee access to the
Temple Mount area to the Jews as well as to the Arabs, a right which the
Jews have always claimed, but have never exercised [other than demanding
access to the so-called "Western Wall" (which is, in reality, not part of
the Temple Mount complex itself, but is merely an old "retaining wall"
below the actual Temple Mount which was built after the construction of
Herod's Temple to prevent erosion to the Temple's foundation)].  Because
they have failed to exercise their "right of access" to the Temple Mount
itself over the years (LARGELY AT THE INSISTENCE OF THE U.S. STATE
DEPARTMENT), many Israelis now fear they will lose that right altogether -
not only on a de facto level, but on a de jure basis as well.

Reality in the Middle East is based more on perception than on fact - and
if the Jews continue to absent themselves from the Temple Mount area (and
continue to confine themselves merely to the so-called "Western Wall."),
then control of the actual Temple Mount itself will invariably pass to the
Arabs not only on a practical level, but also as a matter of law - and all
this regardless of what the Oslo Accords mandate.

These mandates are, after all, not written in stone.  Indeed, there are
growing numbers of Jews who believe that these guarantees (i.e., right of
access to the Temple Mount area and other sacred spots) are even now not
worth the paper they are written on.

SHARON'S VISIT TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT

It was precisely for this reason that Likud chairman Ariel Sharon decided
to put the Oslo guarantees to a test by visiting the Temple Mount on the
eve of Rosh Hashana - a visit that Sharon advertised in advance as a
"simple pilgrimage" to Judaism's holiest site, a "pilgrimage" which was
supposedly guaranteed to the Jews by law.  Sharon reasoned that if such a
"pilgrimage" could not be undertaken now at a time when ultimate authority
over the Temple Mount still rests with Israel, what would happen if this
authority were to pass to the Arabs - either directly or indirectly?

What occurred is probably exactly what Sharon had expected: the promises
contained in the Oslo Accords amounted to nothing on the ground!  The
morning after Sharon's visit, over 20,000 enraged Muslim radicals converged
at the Al Aqsa mosque to hear the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ibrahim Ekrima, refer
to Sharon as the "Jewish butcher of Muslims" who was "challenging more than
one billion Muslims all over the world" by his DESECRATING presence the
previous evening on the Temple Mount. The Mufti appealed for a pan-Islamic
Jihad (holy war) "TO ERADICATE THE JEWS FROM PALESTINE."  In case one still
didn't get the message, Voice of Palestine radio began playing patriotic
war songs and Arafat closed the schools; called a general strike; and urged
everyone to "take their wrath to the streets."  Since then, more than 130
people have been killed and nearly 2,200 wounded, mostly Palestinians.  PA
minister Abed Rabbo warned,

"Trying to touch or to play with the issue of Al-Aqsa (i.e., the Temple
Mount) will lead to a religious war which would last for generations.  Any
attempt to touch even a stone in the Aqsa mosque will provoke more than a
billion Muslims all over the world."

And all this ruckus because Sharon decided to exercise a right of
pilgrimage that was presumably guaranteed to him by the Oslo Accords?  This
doesn't say much for these guarantees - especially in light of the fact
that the world press has all but called for Sharon's lynching for
exercising these supposed rights.  Indeed, Molly Ivins, a well-known
columnist closely tied to the Clinton government in the United States
suggested in a syndicated article that appeared on October 17th, that
Sharon be "charged with treason" for putting the Oslo guarantees regarding
Jewish access to the Temple Mount to such an open test.  In light of all
this, one should excuse average Jews for believing that the Oslo guarantees
are worthless.

TWO NATIONALISMS TRYING TO OCCUPY THE SAME SPOT

What then do we have here?  Exactly what Shipler has said: two nationalisms
trying to defy the law of physics by occupying the same space at the same
time.  Where is there any room for compromise here?  There is none.
Israelis must give up their claim to the Temple Mount and all of East
Jerusalem if there is going to be peace.  Otherwise, there will be war! -
and make no mistake about it, if it comes to war, the world will hold
Israel responsible!

A frustrated Charles Krauthammer, another syndicated columnist in the
United States and a friend of Israel, writing in the Washington Post on
Friday, October 6, 2000, remarked cynically on the unbelievable naiveté of
the Israeli "peaceniks" for trying to negotiate a peace with the Arabs in
light of this kind of intransigence,

"The (Israeli) doves are stunned. Avraham Burg, speaker of the Israeli
parliament and one of the architects of the Labor government's
bend-over-backward peace proposals, writes perplexedly:  'Do we really
understand what is going on? After everything was given,  there are still
demands on the other side'."

"'Suddenly we  discovered', he (i.e., Burg) continues plaintively, 'that
what we mean by peace - which is mutual reconciliation - is not being met
by the other side'."

JAY SHAPIRO AND "HOW TO BOIL A LOBSTER"

Jay Shapiro of Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio in a broadcast on Oct. 19,
2000 went a long way in finding an answer to Avraham Burg's pitiably morose
question, "Do we really understand what's going on?"  He said,

"Now that Oslo seems to be in its death throes, it may be valuable to take
a step back and reflect on the psychology that got us into this mess in the
first place.

"Do you know how to boil a lobster? Those of us raised in kosher homes
don't; our mothers were busy with chicken soup and chopped liver. But
several years ago, an acquaintance of mine taught me how to boil lobsters
because he thought it would be an important contribution to my general
education.

"There are some people who try to cook lobsters by throwing live ones into
a pot of boiling water. This generally doesn't work because the lobsters
carry on terribly and start jumping out of the pot. In order to do this
properly, you have to take into account the nature and character of the
lobsters. There are two facts about lobsters that are crucial: First, they
are cold-blooded creatures; this means that they assume the temperature of
whatever environment they happen to be in. Second, and contrary to the
conventional wisdom, lobsters are very clever and they can only be beaten
by cunning.

"What you have to do is take a pot of water at room temperature and place
it on an unlit stove. Then you place the lobster gently inside and allow it
time to settle in and get comfortable. Then, very quietly and stealthily,
you reach over and light the burner under the pot. It has only to be a
small fire. Then you wait a while. The lobster will sense the slight change
in temperature and rearrange his internal temperature accordingly. After a
while you quietly raise the fire somewhat and, again, wait. The lobster
will again make the proper adjustment. You continue to do this in little
steps and, after a while, the lobster begins to notice that it is getting
uncomfortable and more difficult to make the necessary internal changes.
However, the lobster, being a clever creature, begins to reason with
itself. "It is getting uncomfortable here," it says to itself, "but it used
to be quite nice and maybe it will be again. Besides, why should I jump out
and maybe find out what is causing all this trouble and put a stop to it. I
don't know what is outside and maybe it is worse out there than in here? So
there is no alternative other than to get used to this situation."

"After a while, the temperature has gotten pretty high and there are
bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pot. But the lobster, continuing
to reason with itself the same way, pretends not to notice them. Then,
finally, the temperature reaches a point where the lobster can no longer
make the internal changes - and it is boiled.

"That's how you cook a lobster.

"That's also how you cook a Jewish State."

THE PEACE PROCESS; GETTING ISRAEL USED TO THE HEAT

Shapiro then explained exactly what he meant insofar as the present
predicament Israel finds itself in:

"First, you make an agreement with a terrorist organization dedicated to
the destruction of the State. This is done preferably in some quiet,
out-of-the-way place - say, like Oslo, Norway. The State gets comfortable
with this new environment, especially when any aroused suspicions are
overshadowed by an impressive ceremony, like on the lawn of the White
House, with all kinds of dignitaries present.

"Then, after a while, you bring the terrorist leader and his accomplices to
some place where no one really knows or cares - like Gaza. And, stealthily,
you let him and his friends also take over another place that's off the
beaten track - like Jericho. The State gets used to this and even looks
upon it as a blessing since it really wanted to get rid of those locations
anyhow.

"Then, you allow the terrorist to bring thousands of his friends into the
area and you even arm them and turn over military institutions to their
army and secret police. No one really notices this since most people are
busy with their own problems and don't want to be bothered. There really
isn't much time to think about these things which, anyway, are the kinds of
problems that the government gets paid to worry about.

"After a while, the terrorists kill a few innocent people. And the State
reasons that, what the heck, this used to happen before so there is really
no viable alternative. Besides, each person figures that it can't happen to
him and his family so why bother. Then, the terrorists say that they want
half of the capital city. And the State figures that most people don't go
there anyway so why not?

"Then the government allows the terrorist secret police to kidnap and kill
Arabs who cooperated with the State. And everyone says, I don't know those
guys anyway. Besides, they probably deserve it. While all this is taking
place, the news media keep talking about the wonderful peace partners and
all the nice things that are happening since the agreement was signed at
Oslo and how all the terrorists have nice titles like "Doctor this" or
"General that" and they seem like such nice smiling people on television.
And they speak English so nicely and dress so well. Then a settler is
murdered but, the State reasons, it wouldn't have happened if he wasn't
there. Besides, the Prime Minister has explained that defending the
settlers is a strain on the budget and the army so who really cares? Then,
the government turns all the areas near the major urban centers over to the
terrorists who then bring all their armed friends there from outside the
country and ...."

Shapiro continues by describing the circular logic of Israel's "peaceniks,"
as they enthusiastically embraced the "Oslo Process,"

"In this regard, it must be kept in mind that the Oslo process was not
based on facts. It was based on an ideology, which, like religion, is a
matter of belief, and any facts that disagreed with that belief were simply
hidden or overlooked. The media in Israel share the blame with the
politicians for hiding the facts that disagreed with their ideology. In
events reminiscent of the Yom Kippur War, the leadership and the media were
caught in a conceptual trap of their own making. The Oslo process began,
and continued - because Peres and Rabin were intent on creating their "New
Middle East" despite the facts. And Rabin, "Mr. Security," we were told,
would never do anything to weaken Israel!

"Alas, Israeli governments over the past seven years did not wish to
complain about Palestinian incitement and violence, since that might have
slowed down the Oslo process. The tone for this stupid and blind approach
to the Oslo process was set by Rabin and Peres back in 1995. At that time,
a cassette was made available to the Israeli government, containing a
speech made by Arafat at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa. In his
speech, Arafat said that the whole Oslo process was simply a tactic to
weaken the Jews. It was like the agreements that Mohammed had made with
tribes that were stronger than him. As soon as he had enough power, he
simply violated the agreements and destroyed his enemies. When this
cassette was played to Rabin, his comment was: "If this is true, it's very
bad." Of course it was true - it was a recording of Arafat! But Rabin and
Peres could not be bothered with the truth because it disagreed with their
theory."

Shapiro goes on by explaining the futility of trying to base one's
arguments on facts when those who disagree with you don't want to hear any
facts that might contradict stands they have already taken.  Facts in such
instances are "hindrances to progress."  Shapiro writes:

"When Barak went to Sharm-a-Sheikh (to meet with Clinton and Arafat to try
to end the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem and
elsewhere), he took along a special group of so-called experts to explain
the Israeli position to the foreign press. The people whom Barak sent to
run around Europe and explain our (i.e., the Israeli) position are the same
ones who were fully aware that the Palestinian Authority was, for some
time, training children to fight and kill Jews; they kept the information
quiet since it would upset their concept of the "peace process."  Now, they
are trying to explain why so many Palestinian children are being shot by
Israeli soldiers defending themselves against the stone-throwing mobs. One
of the main tricks of the Palestinians is to send children first to throw
stones while behind these mobs they dispatch snipers who shoot at our
soldiers. Many of these Arab kids spent the summer at terrorist training
camps and are now in schools that utilize PLO textbooks that teach them to
hate Jews and promote the destruction of the State of Israel."

In this kind of process, of course, there is no way that the Israelis can
win the "public relations" battle.  They've been "SET UP" to take the
"FALL" - and they have been "SET UP" in a very deliberate and purposeful
manner.  But by whom? - that's the question.

WHO'S BEHIND THE PEACE PROCESS?

Shapiro's analysis as to what has been occurring insofar as the "Oslo
Process" is concerned is very precise - as far as it goes.  Indeed, most
Israelis by now would probably concur in Shapiro's explanation.  But he
leaves unanswered the question as to who's really behind the process; what
forces are driving it - maybe because it's too difficult for him to
acknowledge.

The fact is, however, what most Israelis hardly dare admit - except for
those at the extreme right and the extreme left of the Israeli political
system - is that it's the Americans (specifically, the American elites) who
are driving this very dangerous process, a process that is, with each
passing month, taking on a decided anti-Israeli tone. That's a difficult
thing for most Israelis to come to grips with - both Hawks and Doves. Why?
- because if the Americans are against them who do they have left in this
world to trust?

Now this isn't to say that average Israelis aren't aware that the Americans
are deeply involved in the "Oslo Process," they're certainly cognizant of
that fact.  But what they don't know - or at least what they don't want to
admit to themselves - is that the American elites themselves are the ones
behind the anti-Israeli tone that has taken hold on the Oslo Process in
recent months, and that they fully realize that, in the end, the process
could very well prove to be SUICIDAL for Israel - at least insofar as
Israel's chances of remaining a JEWISH state are concerned.

Moreover, what's infinitely worse for Israel, is the fact that not only do
the American elites realize that the process may be suicidal for Israel,
they embrace this prospect with some degree of enthusiasm - and so much so
that it's probably not too much to say that it's no longer just the
Palestinians that are attempting to boil the Israeli lobster, but the
American elites as well.  In the end, all the Palestinians may be doing is
acting as America's "go-fer" in this process. Significantly, even the power
in Washington of the Jewish establishment has not been enough to prevent
America's tilt in favor of its anti-Jewish policy insofar as the Oslo
Accords are concerned.

THE AMERICAN ELITES AND THE JEWS

The fact of the matter is, as we have indicated in previous articles, the
American elites who are driving the "Oslo Process" have a very checkered
history insofar as Israel and the Jewish community are concerned, and when
James Baker, one of Ronald Reagan's key advisors and George Bush's
Secretary of State (and a card-carrying member of the American elite),
said, "F-ck the Jews," it was not merely a slip of the tongue; he was
simply giving expression to the traditional feelings the American elite has
had for the Jewish community.  [Please see The Secret War Against the Jews
by John Loftus and Mark Aarons, pg. vii.]

The truth is, the social class out from which most of America's elite
(including Baker et. al.) has sprung has historically been saturated with a
very profound and deep anti-Semitism.  Anti-Semitism was (and, if the truth
were really known, still is) one of those "markers" for people of "good
breeding" and forms, even today, a kind of "in-house" philosophy among the
upper-class who are attracted to the U.S. diplomatic service.  Today, of
course, all this is carefully hidden behind a "front" or "facade" of
"political correctness," and it is true that many Jews have managed to
scramble up the State Department's bureaucracy to some very lofty heights.
Indeed, Madeline Albright, the current Secretary of State, is a Jew -
still, it's not something that she admits to readily (she just found out
about it).  Indeed, she seems to be quite embarrassed by it, and there is
nothing more anti-Semitic than a self-loathing Jew.  All this, of course,
doesn't say much as to the depth that "political correctness" has sunk its
roots in America's foreign policy establishment.

But there is much more than raw anti-Semitism at work in the American elite
that predisposes it against Israel: it's the life-blood of the elite that,
in the end, inclines it against the Jewish state - MONEY!  And in this
regard, one must remember that if money is the life-blood of the American
elite, then oil is at the heart of the elite's "net worth."  As we have
said previously, the elite is inextricably tied to "Big Oil" - from George
Bush (and, indeed, the entire Bush family) to Al Gore and his family as
well; from Dick Cheney to George Schultz; from James Forestal to Cap
Weinberger; from James Baker to, well, ad nauseum.  "BIG OIL IS THE
AMERICAN ELITE" (or at least the heart and soul of the American elite), and
once one understands this fact, then it's not too difficult to measure the
elite's (and, ipso facto, the American government's) REAL disposition
towards Israel.

WHAT AMERICA IS REALLY UP TO

The sad truth is, while America (or at least the elite that governs
America) has been posturing as Israel's champion for the past fifty-five
years, it has at the same time been secretly working to destroy it.  This
is the conclusion of John Loftus and Mark Aarons in their book, The Secret
War Against The Jews.  And, again, why is that? - OIL!   The Arabs have it
and the Jews don't - and if one is going to pump oil out of a region whose
inhabitants despise the Jews, some consideration to the passions of the
region must be displayed if one doesn't want his project to go up in
flames.

It's a given fact that as far as the Arabs are concerned, whoever opposes
the Jews in the Middle East is their friend; and whoever evinces sympathy
for Zionism is their enemy.  For the oil companies who want to pump oil out
of the Middle East, it's a "no brainer" - and for this reason the oil
companies have been anti-Zionist from the very beginning, fighting the
establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 through their minions at the
State Department and the Department of Defense (i.e., George Marshal and
James Forestal), and failing that (largely because of Truman's
intervention) seeking since then to hinder and "neutralize" Israel at every
turn of the way.

THE OIL ELITES AND AMERICAN
FOREIGN POLICY VIS A VIS THE JEWS

As difficult as it is for most American evangelicals to come to grips with,
the elites with whom they have made their bed in the United States (and we
have reference here most particularly to those elites connected to the
Republican Party) DESPISE Israel.  The fact is, to deny that the oil
companies are anti-Zionist is tantamount to looking at the color black and
calling it white.  And, furthermore, to say that the oil elites don't call
the shots insofar as American foreign policy in the Middle East is
concerned is absolute nonsense.  The experience of Joseph Churba, who was
the Middle East Intelligence Estimator for Maj-Gen. George Keegan, then
Chief of US Air Force Intelligence in the mid-1970s is illustrative of this
fact. Churba recounts a December 1972 National Intelligence Estimate
meeting he once attended which was devoted to the Middle East in which
representatives from the oil companies, all in observer capacity, actually
outnumbered the participating officials.

Churba was shocked by his experience.  He relates, "Here was blatant
evidence of an incestuous relationship between the CIA (and the American
foreign policy establishment) on the one hand, and the oil companies on the
other. The oil firms were allowed to provide crucial data, and to actually
oversee the members of the intelligence community in the performance of
their estimating task. Invariably the estimates that emerged were in
concord with the prevalent interests and views of the oil industry. That
was my introduction to 'independent' US government policy formulation."
[Please see Joseph Churba, The Washington Compromise, 1995]

And nothing has changed since - and so much so that, according to Churba,
the CIA continues to insist on using data provided by the oil industry as
the foundation for their National Intelligence Estimate for that part of
the world.  The very real fact of the matter is, since the end of the
Second World War, U.S. policy formulation insofar as the Middle East is
concerned has been strongly influenced, if not dominated, by the interests
and positions of the key oil companies operating there.  Indeed, according
to Churba, the grip of the main U.S. oil companies and their Arab partners
in the innermost U.S. decision-making process as it relates to the Middle
East has never been successfully challenged by anyone, anywhere, at any
time.

WHAT ABOUT THE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS?

But what about the Islamic terrorists?  What about the Mujahedin? What
about Hamas?  What about HizbAllah?  Surely the virulent anti-Americanism
of these Islamic terrorist organization would place the United States
squarely in the Israeli camp?

But such a question betrays a very profound ignorance of America's
relationship with these radical Islamic organizations.  And why's that? -
because, the fact is, for the past twenty years or so, American foreign
policy objectives in the Middle East have been inextricably bound up with
these organizations, and in some cases, even their creation.

Take the Mujahedin of Afghanistan, for example. Since the late 1970s and
all during the 1980s, the US played a major role in the creation (at least
in its present form) and the sustenance of this organization.  The primary
U.S. objective in doing so, of course, was to prevent the USSR from
reaching the oil resources of the Persian Gulf, and wresting control of
these resources from the American elites which control them - and in order
to prevent this from happening, the U.S. elite was more than willing to
ally itself with the devil, something that for the U.S. is not a
particularly difficult thing to do.

The same is true of America's involvement with the Islamic resistance to
Russia in the Caspian Basin and Central Asia where the United States has
played a central role in supporting the irregular Islamist forces fighting
the Russians in Chechnya, while at the same time providing a strategic and
diplomatic umbrella for Turkey in its effort to revive radical Islamic
militancy in the Caucasus.

And this is true not only of Afghanistan, the Caspian Basin and the
Caucasus, but it's also true insofar as America's support for radical
Islamic forces in the Balkans, even to the point of allowing so-called
Mujahedin "freedom fighters" to penetrate the Balkans through the U.S.
blockade of the region in order to strengthen Muslim forces in Bosnia and
Kosovo - and so much so that today the de facto governments in control of
both Bosnia and Kosovo are RADICAL Islamic ones allied with the Mujahedin.

In all three cases, the U.S. has sought to intervene and manipulate
geo-strategic forces in the Middle East to its advantage in order to ensure
the American elite's control over regional oil and gas resources - and in
every instance that it has done so, the US intervention has always been on
the side of MILITANT Islam.  Moreover, in each case the U.S.'s primary
objective has been to deny Russia access to the region's oil and gas
resources by breaking Russia's grip on first, Afghanistan, then the Caspian
Basin, and finally the Balkans - and all this despite the fact that most of
these Islamic forces have been as virulently anti-US as they have been
anti-Israeli and/or anti-Russian.

The fact is, the ascendance of America's oil elite in U.S. foreign policy
vis a vis the Middle East means the dominance of "Muslim interests" in that
region, in addition to the Balkans and the Caucasus. Hence, the American
government has done its utmost to ensure that Bosnia-Herzegovina would
become a radicalized Muslim state, bombed the civilian-economic
infrastructure of Yugoslavia to ensure the domination of Kosovo by the
Muslim Albanians and risked the alienation of Russia to Cold War levels in
order to empower the Chechens.

PLAYING A DOUBLE GAME

You say that this doesn't make sense?  But it does if one keeps his eye on
what America is really up to in the Middle East, specifically, control of
Middle Eastern oil.  You must remember that the subservient situation of
the nations of the Middle East to the will of the United States is no
different than the situation that Colombia suffers under (or for that
matter, Guatemala, or El Salvador, or Nicaragua, etc.).  The status of the
countries of the Middle East  as "client states" (albeit very important and
specialized ones) in America's "New World Order" System is the same as any
other in America's "New World Order" System; as such, these countries
(i.e., America's "client states" in the Middle East) are INHERENTLY
UNSTABLE.  What renders them unstable, of course, is the fact that "client
states" in the "American System" enjoy very little popular or mass support.
As a result, they are "congenitally" beset by civil disturbances and
popular unrest.

Because of this, the United States intelligence community is in the habit
of maintaining clandestine liaison with opposition forces throughout its
"client state" system in order to ensure that should unrest reach a point
where the indigenous government can no longer control events, the U.S. can
simply switch sides, reach an accommodation with the new elite, and carry
on as if nothing had occurred.  This is exactly what it did when Marcos was
overthrown in the Philippine Republic; when Pinochet was ousted in Chili;
when the military junta in Argentina was overturned; when Mobutu was thrown
out of Zaire (now the Congo); when Suharto was toppled in Indonesia, ad
nausium.

This is, as we indicated in an earlier article on Colombia, precisely what
was behind the President of the New York Stock Exchange Richard Grasso's
visit to the jungles of southern Colombia (along with representatives of
Morgan-Stanley, CitiBank, Chase-Manhattan, etc.) to meet with the
fatigue-clad, gun-totting representatives of Colombia's rebels?   THE WHOLE
EPISODE REVEALED HOW UTTERLY LACKING IN IDEOLOGY OR MORALITY AMERICA'S
FOREIGN POLICY IS. THE PURSUIT OF MONEY IS WHAT AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY IS
ALL ABOUT.  THAT'S IT!  THERE IS NOTHING ELSE!  The whole thing would have
been laughable if it hadn't been so tragic - it was akin, as we indicated
in our Colombia article, to the presidents of these elite institutions
sitting down and talking with the Gambino crime family and other members of
the New York Mafia about how to divide New York City up among themselves to
their mutual benefit!

But then this is the American elite's modus operandi!! - the American way
of doing things!!  First, co-opt the opposition; second, corrupt it; third,
replace the old elite with the new (and now co-opted and corrupted elite);
and, fourth, carry on as before.  As a result of this modus operandi, the
U.S. views terrorist groups like the Mujahedin, Hamas, HizbAllah, etc. as
future indigenous elites that it may someday have to co-opt and enlist as
an indigenous "client state" elite with which it can do business to each
group's mutual benefit.

THE PLO AS AN AMERICAN "CLIENT STATE" ELITE

Sometimes, of course, it doesn't work - as in the case of countries like
Iran and Cuba where the new elites cannot so readily be co-opted and
corrupted; but normally, it does; and when it doesn't, the U.S. isolates
the "offending" state, and cuts it off from the rest of the so-called
"world community" until it finally caves in and cries, "Uncle."

This is, after all, exactly what the U.S. did with Yasser Arafat's PLO.
There was, after all, a time when the PLO was viewed by average Americans
with as much horror as the Mujahedin, Hamas, and HizbAllah are viewed
today. The PLO, it should be remembered, is the same terrorist organization
which slaughtered American and Israeli civilians indiscriminately in the
1970s and early 80s, to wit:

1.  LOD AIRPORT - May 30, 1972:  PLO attacks Puerto Rican pilgrims.  Thirty
killed; seventy-three wounded.

2. MUNICH - September 5, 1972:  PLO terrorists attack the Olympic
Village; twelve Israeli athletes slaughtered; one wounded.

3. GREECE - September 9, 1974:  TWA plane crashes into the sea.  All
eighty-eight men, women, and children killed.  PLO claims responsibility.

4. MA'ALOT, ISRAEL - May 15, 1974:  PLO terrorists attack school;
twenty -eight killed, including twenty-one innocent children; sixty-five
are injured.

5. BEIRUT, LEBANON - June 16, 1976: U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon,
Francis E. Miller, Jr., and two aides are kidnapped and murdered.  PLO
claims responsibility.

6. TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - March 11, 1978: terrorists seize two buses.
Thirty-four are killed; eighty-two are injured.  PLO claims responsibility

7. JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - June 2, 1978: bomb blast kills six and injures
nine on city bus.  PLO claims responsibility.

But that was then, and this is now.  The PLO is now working for the
Americans.  It has been co-opted, "cleaned up" (at least insofar as its
"press image" is concerned) and is now acting as a "new" elite in the
service of U.S. interests in that part of the world. You might say, Where
is the morality here? - there is, of course, none!

There is NO morality in money - and there is, as a result, no morality in
the way America conducts its foreign policy in the Middle East - and that
should say something to those evangelicals who think that America is doing
God's will in the Middle East insofar as Israel is concerned.

The fact is, so "cleaned up" has the PLO become under the impress of the
corporately-controlled American media that one could today be excused in
thinking that the PLO is nothing more than a humane and gentle company of
"angels" bent on liberating the Holy Land from the oppression of the Jews,
people that the same corporately-controlled, elite press is coming
dangerously close to portraying as Nazis bent on the merciless subjugation
of an "inferior race" (i.e., the Palestinians).

The Jews as Nazis and the Palestinians as Jews - now that's the kind of
propaganda coup Joseph Goebbles, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, would have
been proud of!

THE SECULARIZATION OF THE JEWISH STATE

Ultimately, what the U.S. elites have been aiming at over the past several
years in Israel is the "secularization" of the Jewish state.  THE AMERICAN
ELITES ARE MORE THAN COGNIZANT THAT NO ACCOMMODATION WITH ISRAEL OVER
JERUSALEM AND THE OTHER "HOLY SITES" IS POSSIBLE WITH A JEWISH STATE WHERE
RELIGION PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE CULTURE OF THE PEOPLE. This is why
both Republican and Democratic administrations in the United States have in
recent years supported Labor governments, even to the point of interfering
in Israeli elections to a degree that would be considered absolutely
illegal in this country - i.e., sending millions and millions of dollars to
Israel in order to ensure a Labor victory over the more hawkish Likud, and
even sending U.S. experts at "voter manipulation" like James Carville to
Israel in order to doubly guarantee a Labor win.

And there can be no doubt about it, the American elites have had much to
show in recent years for their efforts - especially in strengthening the
secularization process in Israel, and increasing the strength of those on
the far left of Barak's government like the Deputy Speaker of the Israeli
Knesset who seems to favor "peace at any price;" the same Deputy Speaker
who declared herself last month to be in favor of a "SECULAR REVOLUTION"
which would make Israel a "secular state" like "all the other nations of
the West" and one which, presumably, would give Islam the same rights in
the Jewish state that Judaism holds today.

BENNY MORRIS, AVI SHLAIM & TOM SEGEV

As in the United States, those who favor "secularization" as a political
and social policy in Israel are particularly clustered around the Israeli
educational establishment.  In recent years this cabal of secularists have
had a profound affect on attitudes in Israel through the publication of
such books as Benny Morris's Righteous Victims: A History of the
Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999; Avi Shlaim's The Iron Wall: Israel and
the Arab World; and, in Hebrew, Tom Segev's The Days of the Poppies:
Palestine Under the British.

The kind of anti-Zionism that these books have engendered in Israel among
Jews has been quite shocking - especially as it has impacted Israeli
schools.  Many liberal Jews in the United States support and applaud this
process.  Take Ethan Bonner of the New York Times, an advocate of the
secularization of Israeli society, for example;  in a recent editorial
dealing with the secularization of Israeli high school textbooks, Bonner
wrote:

"(Israeli) school-children have long been taught that the Jews have always
been surrounded by enemies and that their victory over five Arab armies in
the 1948 War of Independence was a near miracle of David-and-Goliath
proportions ... (But) the new books say that it was the Israelis who had
the military edge in the War of Independence (and) that many Palestinians
left their land because they were afraid, and in some cases expelled by
Israeli soldiers.  The books freely use the word "Palestinian" to refer to
a people and a nationalistic movement, unheard of in the previous texts.
They refer to the Arabic name for the 1948 war - the nakbah, or catastrophe
- and they ask the pupils to put themselves in the Arabs' shoes and
consider how they would have felt about Zionism.  Finally, the books no
longer separate Jewish and Israeli history from events around the world but
weave them into a single tapestry ... 'Only ten years ago much of this was
taboo', reflected Eyal Naveh, a history professor at Tel Aviv University
and the author of one of the new ninth-grade textbooks.  'We were not
mature enough to look at these controversial problems.  Now we can deal
with this the way Americans deal with the Indians and black enslavement.
We are getting rid of certain myths'."

Bonner's editorial in the Times was dated August 14, 1999 and came out
under the title, "Israel's History Textbooks Replace Myths With Facts."
The editorial was enthusiastically embraced by many in the liberal Jewish
establishment in the United States who thought in doing so they were doing
nothing more than pushing the same secularization process in Israel that
had worked so well for them in the United States. In doing so, they
believed that they were being consistent on a principled basis by accepting
the same secularization for themselves (really, for their co-religionists
in Israel) that they had so vigorously pushed in America insofar as the
Christian community was concerned.  Secularization in America had brought
peace and acceptance for Jews here; couldn't the same process in Israel
bring acceptance and peace for Jews in the Middle East?

SECULARIZATION OF THE JEWISH STATE
ULTIMATELY MEANS THE ISLAMIZATION OF ISRAEL

This, of course, is what many in the Palestinian community say they are
pushing for - a secularized Israel - i.e., AN ISRAEL THAT HAS BEEN "CUT
OFF" FROM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB - where both Jews and
Muslims can live in peace together in one state.  But in the long run, to
Arafat and his cohorts it appears that all secularization is, is a short
"way station" along the road to the total Islamization of the Holy Land - a
step that would be easy enough to achieve once Muslims outnumbered Jews in
Israel.  Secularization, as Arafat said in Johannesburg, South Africa, is
just another tactic to weaken the Jews -

"... like the agreements that Mohammed made with tribes that were stronger
than him. As soon as he had enough power, he simply violated the agreements
and destroyed his enemies."

But an Israeli state where the Jewish religion was just one of many other
religions? An Israel "free" of its Jewish roots?  An Israel that had turned
its back on its founding principle to be a "safe haven for Jews the world
over?"  An Israel that repudiated the words of its own national anthem
"HaTikvah" which say: "... to be a free nation in our (Jewish) Land?"   As
the thought has begun to take root in the minds of many otherwise liberal
and secular Israelis, they have been revolted by it - and not only among
Jews in Israel, but also among growing numbers of secularized Jews in this
country that have at last begun to seriously count up the cost of what the
"End Game" of the Oslo Accords might be all about.

ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON IN
THIS LIFE: THE AMERICAN ELITE AS THEIR PRINCIPAL ENEMY

And, again, who is pushing this decidedly anti-Jewish process?  Can there
be any doubt that it's the Americans.  This is exactly what Carville was
doing in Israel prior to Israel's last election - the one that brought the
Barak government to power.  What Carville was attempting to do was make
secularization an acceptable process to the Jewish community, or at least
to those Jews allied with Barak and the "peace party" - even to the point
of making palatable to Jews in the "peace party" an alliance with Israeli
Arabs designed to neutralize the "natural majority" against the Oslo
Accords in the Jewish community itself.

And make no mistake about it, the Republicans are as involved in selling
secularization to the Israelis as the Democrats are.  There's no difference
here.  The Republicans are as willing to "sell out" the Israelis as the
Democrats are, their alliance with the evangelical community
notwithstanding.

NOW STOP AND THINK ABOUT ALL THIS FOR A MINUTE! ISN'T THIS THE EXACT SAME
ELITE - THE ONE THAT IS AIMING TO DESTROY ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE (i.e.,
THE AMERICAN ELITE) - THAT WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR MORE THAN A YEAR
INSOFAR AS THE CHURCH IS CONCERNED? - SURELY IT IS!! Isn't this the same
elite that is seeking the destruction of the church, at least the true
church? - surely it is!  What does this say then?

It says very simply that - ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH ARE CONFRONTING THE SAME
ENEMY: THE AMERICAN ELITE!  I say again, ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH ARE
CONFRONTING THE SAME ENEMY: THE AMERICAN ELITE!  PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS -
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU "GET IT!"

Doesn't all this say something to you?  Do you think that all this is just
"happen-stance?" A coincidence?  If you do, you are a very, very naive
person.  These people - i.e., the elites - the same people who are
pretending to be both Israel's friends and the church's friends (but who in
reality are seeking the destruction of both) are UTTERLY wicked and
THOROUGHLY evil people.  THEIR GOD IS THEIR MONEY, and they have been
TOTALLY corrupted by it.  As we said in our Colombia article, these people
are people who HURT other people; the kind that "drown men in destruction
..." (1 Tim. 6:9); who "... walk after the flesh ... and despise
government" (i.e., who despise being told what to do, though they revel in
the fact that they are able to tell others what to do); "... presumptuous
are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of ... (divine
things)" (2 Pet. 2:10);  "they are wells without water, clouds that carry
themselves around as if in a tempest ..." (2 Pet. 2:17);  "... they speak
great swelling words of vanity ... (and) allure (disciples to themselves)
through the lusts of the flesh" (2 Pet. 2:18); they are "... raging waves
of the sea ... wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness for ever." (Jude 1:13).

God help both Israel and the church to free themselves from such people,
for while they (i.e., the elites, and most particularly the American elite)
pretend to be the friends of both, they are in reality doing everything in
their power to destroy them.  These men serve a system that is UNALTERABLY
opposed to both the church and Israel, and when such people come bearing
either Israel or the church gifts or alliances of any kind, one should be
cognizant of the fact that it is not meant for their good, but for their
ruin.

More text time!

God bless all of you.

S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries


--------WE CONTINUE TO NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT--------


Just a short note to remind you that we REALLY do need your financial help!

There is a real place in the ministry for those who feel called to
sacrificially support the work of the ministry in this way - and believe
me, those of you who are helping us in this way are contributing to the
work of the ministry every bit as much as those who are working in the
"field." Have no doubt, God will take note of what you have done!!  He
knows very well how difficult it has been for many of you to help us in
this way - and someday, it will be returned to you many times over; maybe
not in this life, and maybe not materially - but God knows how to reward
His saints - He is a REWARDER of those who help!!  On THAT DAY, on THAT
GLORIOUS DAY, He will "pay His debts!!" - to some ten fold, to some a
hundred fold, and to some a thousand fold.

You can send your support to:

ANTIPAS MINISTRIES

Antipas Ministries
3927 2nd Avenue
Sacramento, California 95817

If you have any questions, just give us a call at (916) 568-7461.  If you
can't afford the call, just email Fred (fredp@lanset.com), leave your
telephone number, and he will get back to you at no cost to you.

 God bless you all!

S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries

-----START THE REVOLUTION WHERE YOU'RE AT! ------

Start the REVOLUTION where you are!!  Begin where you are!!  Believe me
when I tell you, there are plenty of Christians who feel just as you do -
disgust for the present condition of the church.  Remember Elijah!  Elijah
- like so many of you - felt that he had been abandoned; that there were no
other faithful ones left in Israel except he and Elisha.  That the
condition of Israel had collapsed to the point that there was no one left!
But what did the Lord say to him:

  "... (Elijah), I (still) have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the
knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed
him." (1 Kin. 19:18)

Yes, dear Christian, God has His faithful ones - they are there, near you.
You just need to find them.  And how do you do that? - by opening your
mouth and speaking forth God's word.  Download the literature we have sent
you, and distribute it to you neighbors and friends.  Make a NUISANCE of
yourselves, and as you do so, God's faithful ones will see you and be drawn
to you!  Then start a Bible study in your home - and when you are able,
expand it into a "house church."  You can do it!!  YES, I say again, you
can do it!!

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