A Strip Maul

The Gaza Strip has been mauled. Hamas bulldozers tore down the metal border wall between Gaza and Egypt, and now there are problems on both sides of the border—first between the Palestinians and Israel to the north and, now, between Egypt and the Palestinians on the south.
Tourists who have traveled from Israel to Egypt can readily understand the area’s significance. That border is where pilgrims change buses and go through customs at a town called Rapha, which is at the Promised Land border area identified with a stream called "the River of Egypt" (Gen. 15:18, Numbers 34:5, Joshua 15:4, 47, I Kings 8:65, II Kings 27:4, and Isaiah 27:12).

In retaliation for unrelenting rocket attacks on Sderot, Israel sealed the border. That meant that huge amounts of Israeli imports were withheld, which showed the astonishing dependency of the Palestinians on Israel. When the border fence with Egypt was flattened, thousands of Palestinians surged across to buy food and other goods. The Associated Press reported, "Rami Abdou, an economic analyst, estimated that Gazans, in two days, spent $130 million in Egypt after the wall was torn down by Hamas, ‘a princely sum’ for the poverty-stricken territory."

Egypt is concerned about illegal immigrants coming into the country from Palestine and about border terrorists smuggling people and supplies into Palestine to further harass Israel, which worsens relations between Israel and Egypt.

Further, Israel is concerned about terrorists moving freely into Sinai (in Egypt) to kidnap Israeli civilians living there. There are already smugglers’ tunnels under both the Egypt/Palestine and Palestine/Israel borders.

Economically, the problem is not poverty but politics, pointing up the issue that Palestinian leadership is uninterested in formal peace but fosters constant irritating agitation to embarrass Israel before the world.

Incidentally, the term "Palestinian" is a misused term. Since Roman times, Palestine encompassed all of present Israel, the land currently contested and all of Jordan. For centuries, Palestinians were those living in Palestine—including Jews, Arabs, Christians, Muslims or whoever. Palestine is always an area, not necessarily defining a special ethnic or religious group. Now, the term Palestinian has been narrowly defined to enhance international opinion against Israel. There has never been a Palestinian people or nation until artificially defined in recent years.

Israeli withdrawal from Gaza strip, a supposed step toward peace, has resulted in less stability. In Gaza, violent Hamas won elected superiority over the somewhat more moderate Fatah led by Abbas who formed a competitive government on the West Bank. The resulting tensions threaten to plunge the area into civil and international wars.

The Gaza Strip, where this chaos prevails, is the ancient land of the Philistines. Bible references to the past and future mention this ethnic group. The region has the actual areas of the five Philistine cities—Gaza, Gath (of Goliath infamy), Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron. The first four exist today, and ancient Ekron’s site was discovered in recent years.

In Old Testament times, Philistia (from which come the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinians") was a constant problem to Israel. For the future, the Bible prophesies an Israeli recapture of that area. Recall that Israel held it from 1967 until the recent pullouts. Isaiah 11:14 declares, "But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together (a unified Israel) they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them." Contextually, this is very late in time and obviously a millennial reference as Isa. 11:6 indicates. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

This forecasts a time when Israel retakes the Gaza strip area along with north and central Jordan. Israel must lose these to retake them. Jordan was lost long ago, and Gaza has been lost piecemeal in our day. Perhaps tensions will grow so severe that Israel’s security can be maintained only by Israel at least retaking the Gaza strip.

However one views this politically, we are living in crucial days prophetically. Watch Israel, Gaza and Jordan. They are critical prophetic Bible lands zooming into prominence in the last of the last days.

Dave Virkler